Paul Walter Hauser Latest To Join Netflix’s Live-Action Scooby-Doo Series
Paul Walter Hauser Latest To Join Netflix’s Live-Action Scooby-Doo Series
Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird) has joined Netflix‘s live-action Scooby-Doo series as a series regular, Deadline has learned.
No word yet on the role he’ll be playing. Hauser joins following the casting of the show’s core four: Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake, Tanner Hagen as Shaggy Rogers, Abby Ryder Fortson as Velma Dinkley, and Maxwell Jenkins as Fred Jones.
Hailing from showrunner-writer-EPs Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg, the untitled series is a modern reimagining of the Warner Bros cartoon presenting an origin story for the Mystery Inc. gang, including Great Dane Scooby-Doo, that looks at the case that got them solving mysteries.
During their final summer at camp, old friends Shaggy and Daphne become embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely lost Great Dane puppy that may have been a witness to a supernatural murder. Together with the pragmatic and scientific townie Velma and the strange but ever so handsome new kid Freddy, they set out to solve the case that is pulling each of them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to expose all of their secrets.
Warner Bros Television is the studio behind the project. In addition to Appelbaum and Rosenberg via Midnight Radio, exec producers include Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman via Berlanti Productions, which has an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television; André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Adrienne Erickson via Midnight Radio; and Toby Haynes, who is directing the first episode.
Originating with CBS and Hanna-Barbera’s classic 1969 animated series, created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the Scooby-Doo franchise has been going strong for more than 50 years, spawning three theatrical features, nearly 40 animated home entertainment movies, and more than a dozen animated series in total. Netflix’s Scooby-Doo series will be the first in live-action, though Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini famously starred in a pair of live-action films in the early 2000s.
An Emmy and Golden Globe winner whose accolades recognized his starring role in Apple TV’s serial killer thriller Black Bird, Hauser’s 2025 included roles in Searchlight’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Paramount’s The Naked Gun and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Next up, he’ll be seen starring opposite Mark Wahlberg in Peter Farrelly’s comedy Balls Up, releasing on Prime Video on April 15. Upcoming, he’ll also be seen in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot for Sony, among other projects.
