The Scooby Gang are set to return to the site of an old mystery this fall. 1998’s Scooby-Doo! on Zombie Island is one of the franchise’s most beloved adventures and it’s now getting a belated sequel in Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island. The animated flick will see – you guessed it! – Scoob, Shaggy and the rest of the team journey back to the undead island to solve the perplexing puzzle once and for all.
Mystery Inc. enthusiasts will know that the original Zombie Island successfully relaunched the franchise after a period of inactivity, following the dark days of Scrappy-Doo in the 80s. It was praised for its relative darkness and creepiness, particularly the novel twist that the titular creatures were actually zombies and not just men in masks.
Going by this trailer, though, the sequel looks to be retconning the first one somewhat. The original enigma was wrapped up by the end but Velma here says that it’s one of the team’s “great unsolved mysteries.” What’s the betting that this film switches it back to the usual trope of revealing the bad guys are just folks in costumes? Going by the comments under the trailer on YouTube, fans won’t be happy with this outcome. But then again, I suppose this isn’t really made for us old fogeys anyways.
While the animated movie series continues to thrive, Scooby-Doo will be returning to cinemas before long as well. Warner Bros. is working on Scoob!, a CGI-animated reboot which will see the intrepid mutt unite with other classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters to defeat Dick Dastardly (you know, the villain from Wacky Races). Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried and Jason Isaacs are among the starry cast and it’s due to hit cinemas on May 15th, 2020.
As for Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, be sure to catch it on digital from September 3rd and DVD from October 1st.