While James Gunn may be best known for helming the Guardians of the Galaxy films now, back in 2002, he was the screenwriter for the live-action Scooby-Doo movie. What's interesting is, Gunn admits that he wanted to make Linda Cardellini's Velma Dinkley ‘explicitly gay' but was stopped by the studio.
In a thread where fans asked Gunn about making Velma gay in a comeback film for the live-action cast, Gunn revealed:
This actually comes off another revelation that Velma was supposed to be gay in the much newer show Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. A producer had opened up about plans to make Velma a lesbian, but they were only allowed to go far as the network would let them.
Going back to Gunn's take on Scooby though, it was said that he originally had a more adult take before it was all watered down to be kid-friendly. If you watch the movie again, you can actually see a lot of mature references, to Scooby and Shaggy being depicted as potheads to Isla Fischer's character being named Mary Jane (as in marijuana). Can you imagine the 2020 backlash of the scene where Fred is stuck in Daphne's body and is excited at the idea of looking at himself naked?
For now, the Scooby franchise had been rebooted with Scoob!, and while I don't think the film is perfect, I think it's a great jumping point for a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe. I just really hope they bring Matthew Lillard to voice Shaggy because he owns that character now.
As for Gunn, he's working on The Suicide Squad which is set to come out Aug. 6, 2021.
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