Picture Credits: Netflix
Zoinks! The Mystery Machine heads to Netflix in 2027 for the first-ever live-action Scooby-Doo TV series. The 8-episode series is a modern reimagining of the legendary cartoon, serving as an origin story for Mystery Incorporated. Ahead of its release in 2027, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about the series here.
The Scooby-Doo franchise dates back almost six decades, but it transcends generations, and the mystery gang still performs well on Netflix today through its various iterations. Per our engagement tool, both seasons of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated have been long-standing licensed successes on the streamer, boasting over 36 million views since 2023. Meanwhile, the cult classic 2002 live-action movie has over 6.7 million views so far this year.
With numbers like those, and a huge fandom waiting in the wings, it makes total sense that Netflix is ushering in Scooby-Doo for a new generation with a live-action origin story. The 8-episode series was officially ordered in March 2025, roughly a year after the trades first reported that Netflix, Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions were developing a live-action take. It began filming in Atlanta, Georgia in April 2026 and officially wrapped on September 13, 2026. The series is currently in post-production.
It’s also worth noting that this is a Warner Bros. Television production. Scooby-Doo remains a Warner Bros. property (the characters are credited to Hanna-Barbera’s William Hanna and Joseph Barbera), but the series was made for Netflix rather than HBO Max, which is where the franchise’s most recent series, the controversial adult animated Velma, lived. The project predates Netflix’s failed bid to acquire Warner Bros. and sits alongside the growing pile of Warner Bros. Television titles landing on the streamer.
What’s Scooby-Doo: Origins about? Who’s involved? And when will it arrive on Netflix? We’ve compiled everything you need to know about the series down below.
What is Scooby-Doo: Origins about?
Unlike the original live-action movie where the gang were all in their mid-twenties, Netflix’s Scooby-Doo: Origins is exactly what the title suggests: it serves as an origin story for the team as they solve their first mystery together. As we reported back in 2025, the leads were always intended to be teenagers, with the tone said to be aiming somewhere closer to Stranger Things than the cartoon.
It takes place during their final summer at Camp Ruby-Spears (named after Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the original creators of the 1969 animated series), following old friends Shaggy and Daphne as they get embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely, lost Great Dane puppy who may have been a witness to a supernatural murder. Helping them solve the case are scientific townie Velma and the strange but handsome new kid Freddy. Per Netflix’s official synopsis, the case pulls each of them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to expose their secrets.
This series traces the first case they work on as a team before going on to become Mystery Incorporated, of which the rest is history.
First look at Scooby-Doo: Origins on Netflix
Netflix has been drip-feeding looks at Scooby-Doo: Origins throughout production. The first came on April 24, 2026, when Netflix confirmed the title alongside a photo of the gang peeking out from behind a barn door marked with a paw print:
Then, on June 8, 2026, Netflix dropped a 21-second teaser giving us our first glimpse of the real Great Dane puppy playing Scooby. This series marks the first time that Scooby has been played in live-action by a real dog rather than CGI. The clip sees a frightened pup running through the dark woods surrounding Camp Ruby-Spears at night before leaping into the arms of Shaggy, and it’s notably moodier than you might expect from a Scooby-Doo project. Take a look at the teaser down below:
Netflix also released a look at the chocolate-brown puppy in more detail. For now, Netflix is keeping the real dog’s name and age under wraps:
Finally, when Netflix announced the wrap on September 13, 2026, it shared a fresh batch of in-costume photos: the gang crammed onto a couch with snacks and a game controller, a black-and-white photo booth strip, Shaggy and Daphne in a small-town shop, and the puppy sitting in a very familiar-looking retro van behind a Scooby-Doo clapperboard.
Who is involved in Scooby-Doo: Origins?
Scooby-Doo: Origins comes from co-showrunners Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, who also write the series via their production company Midnight Radio. The duo have previously collaborated on the same Netflix project before, both working on the streamer’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop — a series that was canceled after one season due to poor viewership and high production costs.
Beyond that, the whole Midnight Radio quartet is known for its work on big franchises: Appelbaum co-wrote Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol with André Nemec, while Rosenberg co-wrote Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level, and the box office hit Venom alongside Jeff Pinkner.
Also producing from Midnight Radio are: André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Adrienne Erickson.
Additionally, the series is executive produced by Greg Berlanti’s production company, which has a long history with Netflix. Berlanti Productions was behind Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the streamer’s dark and gritty take on Archie Comics characters, plus You, the short-lived Dead Boy Detectives, and the fan-favorite Riverdale, which Netflix licensed from The CW. Given the history of Berlanti’s company spinning darker narratives out of lighter source material, we wouldn’t be surprised if Scooby-Doo: Origins inherited some of that DNA — and the teaser suggests it has.
Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman are executive producers from Berlanti Productions, with Jonathan Gabay also listed as an executive producer.
The series premiere is directed by Toby Haynes, who also serves as an executive producer. Haynes is the Hugo Award-winning director known for his work on Doctor Who, Andor, and the legendary Black Mirror episode USS Callister. More recently, he returned to Netflix to direct its sequel, USS Callister: Into Infinity, the showstopper of Black Mirror season 7. No other episode directors have been announced yet.
Who is working behind the camera?
Per crew listings, the production designer for all eight episodes is Scott Chambliss, best known for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies and Alias. Erinn Knight (Game Night) is the costume designer. Timothy A. Burton (Netflix’s Carry-On) and Jeff Cutter (Prey) are the cinematographers.
The series also shares plenty of crew with another Atlanta-shot Netflix hit: Hiro Koda, the longtime stunt coordinator on Stranger Things, is the second unit director and supervising stunt coordinator here, and production sound mixer Michael P. Clark and a chunk of the camera department are Stranger Things veterans too.
One more crew credit worth noting: Matthew Millard (Morbius) is listed for “creature concept art” across all eight episodes, so expect at least one monster that isn’t just a man in a mask.
Who is in the core cast?
Meet your new live-action Mystery Incorporated:
- Maxwell Jenkins plays Fred Jones. Netflix subscribers will know him best as Will Robinson in all three seasons of Lost in Space, and he more recently appeared in Prime Video’s Reacher and The Bondsman.
- Mckenna Grace plays Daphne Blake. Grace previously voiced young Daphne in SCOOB!, played Young Theo in Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, and starred in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
- Abby Ryder Fortson (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Ant-Man, A Dog’s Journey) is Velma Dinkley.
- Tanner Hagen (The Pitt, Lawmen: Bass Reeves) is Shaggy Rogers. The 21-year-old Minnesota native is the least-known of the four, with this easily his biggest role to date.
Meanwhile, legendary voice actor Frank Welker reprises his iconic role as the voice of Scooby. Welker has voiced Scooby since 2002, when he took over from the late Don Messick, and has voiced Fred since the very first episode in 1969, making him the only member of the original cast still with the franchise. Incidentally, Welker is also lending his voice to Yokoso Scooby-Doo!, the first-ever anime series in the franchise, which was announced in May 2026 as a Tubi Original for North America with Matthew Lillard returning as Shaggy. That one won’t be on Netflix.
Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird, Cobra Kai, The Naked Gun) is a series regular. Netflix is officially keeping his role under wraps, but we understand he plays Scooby’s original owner. This marks a change from the traditional idea that Shaggy owned Scooby from birth.
Two more names joined in August 2026 in recurring roles, per Deadline: André “3000” Benjamin (Four Brothers, High Life), the Atlanta native who, fittingly, contributed to the soundtrack of the 2002 live-action movie with OutKast, and Oscar nominee Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull, Casper). Neither role has been revealed.
Additional cast members
In addition to the core cast, fifteen further cast members were revealed by Netflix on June 10, 2026. Netflix hasn’t announced their characters, but a handful of names have since surfaced via crew and cast listings, which we’ve noted below where available:
- Alex Isles (Normal with a Capital N) as Jonah Dinkley, presumably a relative of Velma’s, and the only one of this group listed for seven of the eight episodes
- Avery Kristen Pohl (General Hospital, Netflix’s Never Have I Ever)
- Bruce McGill (Lioness, Reacher)
- Dani Deetté (The Runarounds, FBI: Most Wanted)
- Elysée Sanvillé (72 Hours), listed for all eight episodes
- Jona Xiao (The Pitt, Eyes of Wakanda), listed for all eight episodes
- Maxwell Simkins (Shifting Gears, Netflix’s The Sleepover) as Eric “Bobo” Kominsky
- Pamela Mitchell (1883, Perry Mason)
- Peter Macon (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Orville)
- Ross Kimball (Jury Duty, Masterminds)
- Rusty Schwimmer (The Pitt, The Righteous Gemstones) as Rhonda Poverly
- Sara Gilbert (The Conners, Riding in Cars with Boys)
- Sauriyan Sapkota (Netflix’s The Midnight Club and The Fall of the House of Usher)
- Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks, Of Mice and Men)
- Wynn Everett (Chad Powers, She Dances), an Atlanta native
Beyond Netflix’s official announcements, cast listings for the series also include a number of smaller roles that give us a few more character names to chew on: Pierce Polomsky (Holler) as Hank Diruchio, Kinsey Kunkel (The Originals) as Caroline Muckelvaney, James Lee Thomas (Bad Boys: Ride or Die) as Minch Muckelvaney, Kamton Kumpe as Red Harris, Mia King (Walker) as Anna Graves, Johann Mikaiel (Hysteria!) as Wally, Chris Jeffreys as Jimmy, and Belloh Teah as a camp counselor. Stunt credits also reference characters named Salem and Tara, plus a stunt driving double for Fred, so expect the future Mystery Machine driver to get behind the wheel at some point.
Where did filming take place for Scooby-Doo: Origins?
The series was shot under the working title Talbot Pines in and around Atlanta, Georgia, one of Netflix’s most prominent filming hubs, where filming for Stranger Things, Sweet Magnolias, and many other shows took place. Netflix confirmed cameras rolled on April 24, 2026, and the production wrapped on September 13, 2026.
Studio work was split between Cinespace Film Studios in Atlanta and Cinelease Studios in Conyers, which the local IATSE union described as the production’s home base. On-location scenes were filmed in Rutledge, Porterdale and Monticello, with Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge being used as the location of the fictional Camp Ruby-Spears. Other local spots used for filming include Silo Walking Park and the historic Village Inn Hotel in Porterdale, a small mill town just outside Covington, where Sweet Magnolias shoots. Background casting was handled by Atlanta’s Hylton Casting.
Sources: City of Porterdale/Facebook, Renee Rayles/Instagram, Hylton Casting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When does Scooby-Doo: Origins release on Netflix?
While Netflix has officially confirmed that Scooby-Doo: Origins will debut in 2027, no specific release date has been announced. With filming wrapped in mid-September 2026, and a show this effects-heavy needing a healthy post-production window, Summer 2027 feels appropriate.
The series is already one of the most anticipated upcoming Netflix shows among our readers, and you can find it alongside everything else on the slate in our 2027 series preview and 2027 release calendar.
What Scooby-Doo content is currently streaming on Netflix?
While Netflix is investing heavily in the long-running Scooby-Doo franchise, the streamer saw Raja Gosnell’s classic live-action films — Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) — ultimately depart its library on September 1, 2026. You’d think Netflix would renew the licensing deal to keep the original live-action Scooby-Doo films in its library to keep the hype train going, but that wasn’t the case.
However, the classic series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated continues to stream on Netflix in the United States, having been relicensed in April 2025 just as it was due to depart, and it arrived on Netflix UK in June 2026. It continues to pull in steady viewership, with both seasons being viewed for a combined 22.9 million hours in 2026.
Are you excited for Scooby-Doo: Origins? Give us all your thoughts in the comments down below.
