{"id":380514,"date":"2026-10-11T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T11:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=380514"},"modified":"2026-10-11T04:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T11:40:22","slug":"how-the-scooby-doo-sequel-destroyed-its-performers-lives-from-success-to-having-to-sell-their-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-the-scooby-doo-sequel-destroyed-its-performers-lives-from-success-to-having-to-sell-their-home\/","title":{"rendered":"How the \u2018Scooby-Doo\u2019 sequel destroyed its performers\u2019 lives: from success to having to sell their home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy and lord and master of DC, is also, for some reason, the screenwriter of Scooby-Doo, the 2002 live-action movie with Freddie Prinze Jr, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, and Matthew Lillard. It couldn&#8217;t be more nineties, even at the start of the 2000s. Although it hasn&#8217;t stood the test of time, <strong>it made good money back then and that was more than enough to spawn a sequel<\/strong>. And it all went to hell.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Amazon Prime Video\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-icon-s\/p\/c162012f-3d10-436b-a6b5-fde423154d8c\/3473184553\/amazon-prime-video-icon.webp\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Amazon Prime Video<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/amazon-prime-video.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/amazon-prime-video.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where Are You?<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although this sequel didn&#8217;t do all that badly (it cost between $25 million and $80 million and grossed $181 million) more was expected, and hopes for a franchise went down the toilet. Matthew Lillard, who had come off Scream, had a golden opportunity to become a star, but he couldn&#8217;t break through. <em>\u201cI had a lot of pressure not to screw it up. <strong>It was the first big movie I was in and a great opportunity for me<\/strong>. And then I thought I was going to be a big movie star\u201d<\/em>. He was. But in his own way, years later.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cAfter <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/its-official-the-new-scooby-doo-series-has-wrapped-filming-for-netflix-and-all-thats-left-is-to-wait-to-see-the-detective-dog\" rel=\"noopener\">the second movie<\/a>, my career fell apart for a long time. I could be one of those 90s guys who never comes back. I have a love-hate relationship with this movie, because I used to say <strong>\u2018It\u2019s Scooby-Doo\u2019s fault. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not working\u2019<\/strong>\u201d<\/em>. Just imagine for a moment blaming your unemployment on a Great Dane who solves mysteries.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can&#8217;t imagine how completely he lost it: <em>\u201cI never regretted doing it because the reality is that if I hadn&#8217;t had the money I made on the second one, I wouldn&#8217;t have been able to keep going. <strong>My wife and I would&#8217;ve had to sell everything, and we almost did. We sold our cars, we sold our house.<\/strong> We downsized so we could live decently. Before this movie I thought \u2018I&#8217;m making all these movies and I&#8217;m a big deal\u2019. The reality is that I&#8217;m not\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honestly, I don&#8217;t think I like anyone in Hollywood better than Matthew Lillard. <strong>It takes guts, after all, to admit you thought you were all that\u2026<\/strong> and you were always, simply, Shaggy.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy and lord and master of DC, is also, for some reason, the screenwriter of Scooby-Doo, the 2002 live-action movie with Freddie Prinze Jr, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, and Matthew Lillard. It couldn&#8217;t be more nineties, even at the start of the 2000s. Although it hasn&#8217;t stood &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-the-scooby-doo-sequel-destroyed-its-performers-lives-from-success-to-having-to-sell-their-home\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How the \u2018Scooby-Doo\u2019 sequel destroyed its performers\u2019 lives: from success to having to sell their home&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9263,"featured_media":380513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-380514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380515,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380514\/revisions\/380515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380514"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=380514"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=380514"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=380514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}