Animated Scooby-Doo Movie Books Will Forte As Shaggy, Gina Rodriguez As Velma, And More

Did you forget there was a big screen animated Scooby-Doo movie in development? There's a good chance you did because it was originall announced all the way back in August of 2015 and was originally slated for release last year. Now the movie will arrive in the summer of 2020, and the voice cast for Mystery Inc. and a surprising character addition have been announced.

The untitled animated Scooby-Doo movie isn't bringing in all of the usual cartoon voices from any of the previous iterations of the Hanna-Barbera animated series. Instead, Will Forte and Gina Rodriguez will be voicing two of the key members of Mystery Inc. However, there's also one returning cast member from the original iteration of Scooby-Doo, not to mention a surprising casting and character addition. Find out more about the animated Scooby-Doo movie cast below.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Last Man on Earth star Will Forte will be taking the role of Shaggy, the perpetually hungry and scaredy-cat sidekick of the titular Great Dane. Joining him will be Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) as the bespectacled and brilliant Velma.Frank Welker (the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers) is also part of the animated Scooby-Doo movie cast, but it's not clear if he'll be playing both of the roles he's known for playing in Scooby-Doo cartoons and animated movies over the years. You see, Welker has been voicing Fred, the ascot-wearing leader of Mystery Inc., since the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series began in 1969. But he's also been voicing Scooby-Doo himself since 2002. It would make sense if they replaced him for Fred (who has been voiced by Robbie Amell somewhat recently), especilaly since they seem to be bringing in bigger names for the rest of Mystery Inc., but we'll find out soon enough.

However, the more surprising addition to the cast is Tracy Morgan. Even more surprising is who he's playing:

That's Captain Caveman from the Hanna-Barbera series Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. The series was like a blend of Charlie's Angels and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, but it teamed up a group of young female mystery solvers with a caveman they thawed from a block of ice. Captain Caveman had super-strength, a variety of useful objects hidden in his long, scraggly hair, and a club that gave him the ability to fly and also has an array of gadgets inside of it. Tracy Morgan is voicing him in the Scooby-Doo movie, and that's pretty perfect voice casting.

But Captain Caveman was never actually in the Scooby-Doo universe. So what's going on here? Well, this animated Scooby-Doo movie will find the Mystery Inc. crew joining forces with other Hanna-Barbera characters to save the world from Dick Dastardly, the villain from Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley and their Flying Machine, and Yogi's Treasure Hunt. Apparently he has some kind of plan that threatens the entire animated universe, and he must be stopped. So Captain Caveman likely won't be the only other Hanna-Barbera character we'll see in the movie.

When the Scooby-Doo movie was first announced all the way back in, there were rumblings of The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Tom & Jerry also getting rebooted, and this movie might be the gateway into that possibility. So it sounds like Hanna-Barbera cartoons might be getting treated like the LEGO cinematic universe at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Tony Cervone is directing the movie, and has plenty of experience with animated, including several of the straight-to-video Scooby-Doo movies. It doesn't sound like Dax Shepherd is involved anymore as co-director. At least he wasn't mentioned in this most recent update after being linked to the project awhile back.

The animated Scooby-Doo movie is slated to hit theaters on May 15, 2020.