Tubi has ordered “Yokoso Scooby-Doo!”, the first original anime series in the franchise’s 57-year history, with Frank Welker returning as Scooby-Doo and Matthew Lillard back as Shaggy. The free streamer, owned by Fox, confirmed the pickup Monday.
Warner Bros. Animation is producing, with Japan’s OLM, the studio behind “Pokemon” and “The Apothecary Diaries”, handling production services. Tubi holds exclusive North American rights, while Cartoon Network will carry the series internationally. Variety first reported the deal.
Itsuro Kawasaki, whose credits include “Psycho-Pass”, is directing. Francisco Paredes is co-producer.
The setup leans hard into a culture trip. Scooby and Shaggy land in Japan on what the official logline calls “the ultimate foodie adventure,” and end up loosing hundreds of mythical monsters across the country. They get help from Scooby’s uncle, Daisuke-Doo, a magical girl named Yume, and a gadget whiz called Takumi. The creatures draw from Japanese folklore.
“Scooby-Doo is one of the most beloved franchises in entertainment, and ‘Yokoso Scooby-Doo!’ lets us reinvent it in a way fans haven’t seen before,” Tubi chief content officer Adam Lewinson said in a statement. “By bringing Scooby and Shaggy into a bold anime world set in Japan, we’re connecting with global fandoms and delivering the kind of fun, chaotic mystery that travels across generations.”
Welker’s history with Mystery Inc. goes deep. He voiced Fred Jones when “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” premiered on CBS in 1969, and took over the title character starting with 2002’s “A Scooby-Doo! Christmas”. Lillard played Shaggy in the 2002 live-action “Scooby-Doo” feature and has voiced the character across multiple animated projects since.
“Welcome to Mystery Inc., Tubi,” Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe president Sam Register said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner on this next chapter as we push the Scooby-Doo franchise forward with its first-ever original anime series.”
The pickup also reads as a notable piece of Warner Bros. Discovery rights traffic. As Variety noted Monday, this is the second WBD-produced animated property in a single day to land at a streaming competitor rather than HBO Max or Cartoon Network’s domestic feed. Disney+ and Hulu dated “Adventure Time: Side Quests”, from Cartoon Network Studios, for a June 29 U.S. premiere.
“Yokoso Scooby-Doo!” is the second new Scooby project in active development. Netflix began filming the live-action series “Scooby-Doo: Origins” in April, with Mckenna Grace, Maxwell Jenkins, Tanner Hagen and Abby Ryder Fortson playing the teen versions of Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Velma.
No premiere date has been announced for the Tubi series.
