Freddie Prinze Jr. Says The Scooby-Doo Movies Were A Bait And Switch
Freddie Prinze Jr. claims the live-action Scooby-Doo films were a bait and switch from the studio, as he signed on to make a very different pair of movies.
Freddie Prinze Jr. is one of the actors that became a heartthrob in the late 90s, a new generation of teen heartthrobs to usher in the new century along with James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, and Chad Michael Murray to take the places of Luke Perry, Paul Rudd, and Leonardo DiCaprio. He made a name in one of the biggest romantic comedies of the time in She’s All That, along with Rachel Leigh Cook and Paul Walker, and one of the biggest horror films with I Know What You Did Last Summer with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillipe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. But according to People Magazine, the actor admits that he has regrets about the bait-and-switch he experienced on Scooby-Doo.
According to the actor on his podcast, he confessed that he has two regrets due to bad experiences on movie sets, and Scooby-Doo was one of them. He said that the film felt like a bait-and-switch because the resulting movie wasn’t what the studio had promised him, and it wasn’t the movie he wanted to make. He went on to say that his opinion of the film has changed over time now that he has seen how much it has impacted the fans.
That doesn’t mean he would be open to returning and continuing his role as Fred Jones in a third installment of the series. Recently, fans on Twitter reached out to the director of both Scooby-Doo movies Freddie Prinze Jr. appeared in, James Gunn, to ask if he would ever return for a finale in a trilogy, to which he opted to be open to the idea. Prinze Jr, however, responded to the idea by saying it wouldn’t be something he is interested in doing anytime soon.
The Star Wars actor doesn’t feel that way about all of his 90s films that made him a household name, as he has agreed to return for a third installment of his horror franchise, I Know What You Did Last Summer. The film will reportedly also see the return of Jennifer Love Hewitt, but no word on Ryan Phillipe or Sarah Michelle Gellar yet (whose characters both notably died). According to Freddie Prinze Jr., he had a hard time on that set as well, revealing that the director made it known that he didn’t want him in the movie and wasn’t shy about reminding him of that daily, which he said wrecked him and made him want to fight the director three different times.
Scooby-Doo was a cultural turning point for kids born in the 90s; seeing the Mystery Inc. clan come to life in live-action stuck with the generation and still remains a favorite among comic-con visitors. While Freddy Prinze Jr. may not be open to continuing his portrayal of Fred Jones, his wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake, Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkly, and Mathew Lillard’s uncanny portrayal of Shaggy Rogers could be another story. Even if they sign on, though, they’d have to lean on Gellar pretty hard to convince her husband to return.
