After More Than 130 Appearances as Shaggy, Matthew Lillard Isn’t Happy to Be Left out of the Scooby Doo Reboot

By Jim Vorel  |  March 4, 2019 | 8:58am
Movies News scooby-doo
After More Than 130 Appearances as Shaggy, Matthew Lillard Isn’t Happy to Be Left out of the Scooby Doo Reboot

The role of Norville “Shaggy” Rogers in the Scooby Doo universe might not necessarily seem like one to get particularly defensive over. Shaggy is, after all, something of a one-note scaredy cat coward—an iconic character of a children’s animated TV show, certainly, but not exactly Oscar material.

Still, when you’ve played the character more than 130 times, you do develop a bit of attachment to a role you consider to be your own. Case in point: Actor Matthew Lillard, who was none too happy to find out that Will Forte had been cast as Shaggy in the upcoming theatrical reboot of Scooby Doo, also starring Gina Rodriguez, Tracy Morgan and Frank Welker.

Lillard (who is also a big Dungeons & Dragons fan) does have some potential reason to be upset. He memorably portrayed Shaggy in the two live-action movies in 2002 and 2004, and has since gone on to reprise the role in a whopping 17 animated movies, 113 TV episodes and 5 video games. And the fact that nobody apparently told him about this new project at all is one that certainly would sting. Lillard made his disapproval felt over Twitter, lamenting that he was only finding out this way.

Presumably, Lillard would have preferred to keep returning to the role, although we can’t help but think that Forte will probably do a great job. Still, after more than 130 rounds as Shaggy, it would have been nice for someone to let Matthew Lillard know.

 
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