New animated Scooby-Doo will use only one voice actor from the original series
Scooby-Doo is getting another reboot, this time as an animated movie. Just announced, the film has recruited a fresh new cast, with stars like Will Forte (Shaggy) and Gina Rodriguez (Velma) giving the franchise a facelift. However, for longtime fans of Scooby-Doo, there will be at least one actor acting as an anchor, connecting this new cartoon movie to the original animated series.
Veteran voice actor Frank Welker will provide the voice of Scooby-Doo for the movie, which they're just calling Scooby. When Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! debuted in 1969, though, Welker had a different role. He voiced the original Fred Jones, then continued working with the franchise through The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and all the other series, the whole time voicing Fred.
It wasn't until 2002 that Welker would take on the work of voicing the franchise star, the iconic pup named Scooby-Doo. That opportunity came in a short called A Scooby-Doo! Christmas, but since then, the voice actor has taken on Scooby's signature "ruh-roh" countless times in TV series and animated movies.
The original voice actor for Scooby-Doo was Don Messick, who also voiced Astro on The Jetsons and Ranger Smith from The Yogi Bear Show. Messick passed away in 1997, providing Scooby-Doo's voice for the last time on a 1995 video game called Scooby-Doo Mystery.
We're not sure if any other veterans from cartoon history will pop up in the newest Scooby movie, but so far they have announced that the movie will embrace characters outside of Scooby's universe. That includes Captain Caveman, who will be voiced by Tracy Morgan. It's a mystery for now how those characters will collide, but we'll keep watching for more clues on this project, which is for now in pre-production.