James Gunn would make an R-rated Scooby-Doo movie if he had the time

Director James Gunn is pretty sure that Warner Bros. is down to greenlight an R-rated Scooby-Doo movie, and while he would love to be the one to make it, he’s a bit too busy right now to make it happen.

Freddie Prinze Jr., who played Fred in the live-action Scooby-Doo and its sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, tweeted that Warner Bros. would never move ahead with an R-rated adaptation. When James Gunn saw this, he respectively disagreed but also acknowledged that he personally doesn’t have time to make such a project. In his Tweet, Prinze said, “Rightly or wrongly they don’t have the guts to make that movie” to which Gunn replied, “I think they’d do it if we asked. I just don’t think I have the time right now!” You can check out the tweet exchange below!

The first Scooby-Doo film was released back in 2002 and was directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn. The duo also returned in the same capacity for the sequel in 2004. Gunn’s script for the first film was a bit more adult before changes were made, including making Velma explicitly lesbian in his initial script. He said the studio kept watering it down to the point that it was only ambiguous in the shot version, but it was removed in the released version. By the time they got to the 2004 sequel, they gave Velma a boyfriend. Gunn has previously explained that the film was originally meant to be at least PG-13 but was cut down to PG after complaints from three parents during test screenings:

“The movie was originally meant to be PG-13 and was cut down to PG after like 3 parents were outraged at a test screening in Sacramento. The studio decided to go a more family-friendly route. Language and jokes and sexual situations were removed, including a kiss between Daphne and Velma. Cleavage was CGI’d over. But, thankfully, the farting remained. I thought at the time the rating change was a mistake. I felt like a lot of teens came out for the first film and didn’t get what they wanted (and didn’t come back for the sequel). But today I don’t know. So many young kids loved those movies, which is pretty cool.”

Warner Bros. could be more open to this now since they have given Mindy Kaling leeway to put a more adult spin on the Scooby-Doo brand. Kaling is currently working on Velma, a reimagining that focuses on Velma solving mysteries without the help of Scooby or the Mystery Machine. The series is aimed at more mature Scooby-Doo fans and is set for HBO Max. The project is animated, which could be why they’re more open to promoting it as an adult cartoon, but I think an R-rated Scooby-Doo could be reasonably successful if done right.

Would YOU want to see an R-rated Scooby-Doo movie?