Warner Bros.’ classic Scooby-Doo franchise is poised for new life thanks to Netflix, which has acquired the rights to a live-action series called “Scooby-Doo! The Live-Action Series.” The series has long been contested between multiple streaming platforms for production, but in the end the Californian giant managed to secure the project with a commitment to make the work with a high budget. The new series will be produced by Greg Berlanti in collaboration with Warner Bros. Television. Screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, already known for their work on Cowboy Bebop, will write the series, based on the characters created by Hanna-Barbera.
Scooby-Doo has been adapted into several series and films for the big screen, including the live action one with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the cast and released in theaters in 2002. The new Netflix series, however, will be a modern reinterpretation of the popular cartoon that first debuted in 1969. The series will follow the adventures of the group of supernatural mystery-solving friends: Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Shaggy Rogers and the talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo. The deal follows the recent success of Dead Boy Detectives, another Berlanti Prods./WBTV series for Netflix, which reached the top 10 most watched series in the US in less than 24 hours after its release, remaining among the top three for the whole weekend.