Dick Dastardly is the Big Bad
Well, duh. However, we may see some Adaptation Origin Connection, because he may be the reason for... Scooby-Doo is an Uplifted Animal.
He was experimented/created by Dastardly, Neo Cortex-style, giving Scooby his intelligence and ability to speak. Scooby somehow escaped and met Shaggy, and the rest is history. Now, why was he uplifted? That's because... Big Bad needs Scooby to awaken Cerberus.
He needs a dog with sufficient intelligence to awaken/control Cerberus (either via commands or via possession). As such, he engineered Scooby to be such a vessel. Connecting to that...- Confirmed about needing Scooby to awaken him, jossed about being created by Dick.
- Completely jossed. Cerberus was a bit more than what Dick Dastardly bargained for. His real goal was needing Scooby to unlock the gate to the underworld so that he could rescue Muttley and then the treasures it holds but it is fair game for how and why Scooby or any of his relatives can talk for that matter.
Muttley will be Scooby's Flawed Prototype.
While Muttley was arguably always portrayed as smarter than Scooby, Muttley's ability to talk was never to Scooby's level, mostly being limited to grunts. This makes Muttley incompatible with Cerberus, thus Dastardly needing to find and capture Scooby. This will give Muttley an inferiority complex and deep hatred for Scooby.- Jossed. Muttley failed due to a previous attempt trapping him in the Underworld.
References to other Scooby-Doo/Hanna-Barbera media:
- Jokes about figuring out why Scooby can talk, including him being a descendant of ancient alien gods or having a cybernetically enhanced brain, but all the explanations are dismissed as being too ridiculous.
- Scooby's various relatives (Scooby-Dum, Yabba-Doo, and of course Scrappy-Doo) are more Flawed Prototypes of Scooby.
- At least one reference to Ultra Instinct Shaggy.
- Either the opening of the film or a possible Villainous Breakdown will have Dastardly screaming "STOP THE PUPPY! STOP THE PUPPY! STOP THE PUPPY!" When one of his minions asks "How?", Dick will reply with "NAB HIM, JAB HIM, TAB HIM, GRAB HIM! JUST STOP THE PUPPY NOW!"
- Fred's ascot will be referenced at one point.
- There will be a scene in a museum with The Flintstones as an exhibit.
- Dick Dastardly will have been a former competitor of the popular Wacky Races racing show until too many losses drove him to become a legitimate villain.
- Fred's ascot is briefly brought back for Fred's "commando mode" when he vengefully charging at Cerberus. The rest are jossed.
Theories for The Stinger, since this will be the first in a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe
- Mystery Inc. will be visited by another Hanna-Barbera character who will serve as the Nick Fury (maybe Dr. Benton Quest or even Yogi Bear) of this verse, who wants to speak to them about Project HB (Helping Brotherhood).
- Jossed, there is no stinger.
The You Meddling Kids line will be thrown in at one point.
It's a Scooby-Doo tradition; someone has to say it!- If it's said by Dick Dastardly, he'll do it like this:Dick Dastardly: DRAT, DRAT, and DOUBLE DRAT! I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for all of you; especially You Meddling Kids, and both of your dogs!
- Confirmed: Dastardly does say the line, but he doesn't say it as above. He's also not the only one to say it, with Mr. Rigby saying it in the opening.
The emotional low point will involve Scooby removing his collar.
It is too readable for an emotional punch to not happen.- Shaggy and Scooby get into a huge argument and then Scooby says, "I'm not your friend/pet anymore," glaring at Shaggy while he yanks off his collar and slams it to the ground in front of Shaggy while walking away. Bonus points if the collar is damaged/broken from the impact.
- And notice that Scooby said, "I'll never take it off." Yeah, that's usually a recipe for disaster.
- Possible variation for this one. Scooby does indeed "never take it off", instead having the collar forcibly removed while separated from Shaggy; however, for plot reasons, when Scooby returns sans collar, Shaggy thinks that Scooby removed it as a sign of rejecting/abandoning their bond and push Scooby away, leading to a heartbroken Scooby heading directly into danger because he now has nothing let to lose. This will be followed by Shaggy finding out the truth, to his horror, and rushing to Scooby's rescue; the rest of the gang (who could either be on Shaggy's side on the original matter, could play devil's advocate or could be divided on the topic) in tow.
- Confirmed, though not in the way it was thought to be. Scooby takes off his collar (with Shaggy's reluctant compliance) to get a new suit to have him help the Blue Falcon gang. However, Shaggy gets jealous and doesn't go with them, as he feels he's unimportant. Shaggy eventually realizes his mistake, but Scooby is taken by Dick after he gets the third skull. The collar isn't given back until after Shaggy's taken out of the underworld.
Red Herring will cameo.
Potentially responsible for the ghost house.- Jossed.
The Mean Machine and the Mystery Machine will be connected.
The similarity in names has never really been touched upon, but now that Dick Dastardly and Mystery Inc. are in the same movie it makes one think. Perhaps they were both created by the same mechanic or Bungling Inventor. (Klunk?) If this is correct, then the Mystery Machine will either have Mean Machine-like abilities that the characters don’t know about, or they do know about them, given the gadgets on the roof.- Jossed.
Daphne has feelings for Shaggy.
The final trailer shows Daphne very concerned for Shaggy and Scooby's well being, even to the point where she's hyperventilating. The official website describes her as being able to understand them more than the rest of the core group. In the flashbacks to them as kids, Shaggy leaps into Daphne's arms in fright. In a TV spot, Daphne joins up with Shaggy and Scooby in confronting Cerberus. This amount of Ship Tease could lead to something more serious at the close of the movie.- Jossed.
Scooby-Doo is Cerberus.
Dick Dastardly had already succeeded in his nefarious plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world, and it backfired, because Cerberus would much rather spend its time being a regular dog for Shaggy.- Which makes it Hilarious in Hindsight that all this time, Scooby Doo
◊/Cerberus◊ has been running away from countless villains, most pretending to be monsters while he IS a monster, pretending to be a dog. - Counterpoint, Scooby Doo is Cerberus but he has no idea.
- Which makes it Hilarious in Hindsight that all this time, Scooby Doo
- Jossed, Cerberus and Scooby are two separate beings.
Dastardly will reluctantly team up with the heroes in the climax.
Either another villain will pull an Eviler than Thou or he'll lose control of his endgame weapon/device/ghost dog. But Dastardly will end up having to begrudgingly team up with Mystery Inc. against the greater threat. Probably leading to them admitting they were impressed or that he could be a good person... before he immediately betrays them or has a previous crime revealed and ruins it all. Because Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat and he would rather be bad than successful. Plus while there are plenty of exceptions, Dastardly tends to be a Villain Protagonist more often than not and it could lead to some good establishing moments in that regard. Also assuming that there is some mystery element to the plot, having the final antagonist be someone whose name is one step away from "Ima Badguy" isn't exactly a shocker.- Jossed, the most he does is get Muttley back and run away with the treasure for a majority of the climax before he's captured.
Scooby was purposefully messing with Dick Dastardly when he mispronounced Dastardly's name as “Rick”.
Seeing how he perfectly pronounced “Dastardly” and “Doo”, Scooby could just have been messing with Dick that whole time.- This leads one to believe that Scooby-Doo has fourth-wall awareness and was trying to trick his enemy into screaming "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!" in a family film.
- Also, Dastardly's real name is Richard Dastardly, and both "Dick" and "Rick" are short for Richard. So technically, Scooby's right when he keeps calling Dastardly "Rick".
Officer Jaffe actually exists.
The female officer that Dick Dastardly disguised as actually exists in-universe, he stole her clothes and got her measurements from those to be able to make the full body latex disguise properly. She's probably at the police station wondering where her uniform, gear, and even her police car went.- Or, she did exist, but Dick (or one of his underlings) disposed of her and took her place.
- Or better yet, she did exist and is alive, just sort of a Noodle Incident.
Dynomutt was given an intelligence upgrade chip before he joined up with Blue Falcon's son, Brian.
It would explain his drastic change of personality compared to his 70s cartoon counterpart. That and Blue Falcon probably wouldn't trust the old Dynomutt and Brian to be a crime fighting duo.- Out of universe the doing the inverse of the Legacy Hero was likely the idea. And if there are sequels to this setting, having something happen that undoes it is a gag that already writes itself.
- And if the gag happens, the old Dynomutt persona will even have the old Frank Welker voice, to boot. Another possibility is that Dynomutt's chip malfunctions, switching between the Frank Welker goofy, bumbling persona and the Ken Jeong snarky, hyper-competent persona at random.
- Most likely confirmed. Can't have a bumbling duo doing the job. One of them has to be the Straight one which resulted in Dyno Mutt being reprogrammed, bonus points go to him being voiced by Ken Jeong.
The real reason Blue Falcon retired and Dynomutt changed is a sequel story
Given this movie dared pull emotional heartstrings perhaps there is more to this story with the fake out of Shaggy worrying that Radley was dead. Perhaps there was an incident where one of the more serious HB villains damaged Dynomutt and made Radley consider retirement. So Radley had Dynomutt repaired and made more competent to protect him from the more serious threats that lurk out there. The Simon Cowell at the beginning of the film was actually Dick Dastardly, disguised as Cowell in order to bring Scooby's self esteem down to separate him from the gang to capture him.
That would explain why he looks so damn weird.- It is not the first time real life celebrities appeared in Scooby Doo in animated form so it is jossed for that part. However, it is a common theory that Dick Dastardly chose to portray Simon Cowell as his harsh criticism in real life is not liked by some people which it affected not only Scooby but also Shaggy.
Dynomutt hates his former goofy idiot sidekick personality and resents Brian due to him reminding him of it.
- Probably that but it is mostly on the original Blue Falcon's side of things, reprogramming Dyno Mutt to be a Straight dog to Brian's goofiness.
A Sequel will involve a mix-up with The Funky Phantom.
Both teams will be working the same case, without knowing about the other group. When they first encounter Mudsy, they will think he's a hoax and try to capture him, only to find both that he's a real ghost, and that he's actually a good guy. Then the two teams will team up to solve a big, complex mystery.- A theory for now as there is no stinger except for the fact that Dick Dastardly was rescued from prison by Muttley.
This movie's Captain Caveman is actually a grown Cavey Jr
Realistically they tried to update Cavey and for lot of old school fans his Hulk Speak is part of his coolness. But Cavey Jr has always spoken just fine. The original Captain went up to the North Pole surface on a mission and never came back. Cavey Jr assumed the role of Captain of his people. This leaves the possibility to use both characters going forward.Klunk invented the Rottens
Dick isn't exactly the biggest engineer so it makes sense to use his old teammate as the person who makes all his wonderful toys. Perhaps in this setting he worked with Dastardly after "the war" too. Dusty is actually This universe's version of Scrappy
First of all, while there are a lot of differences, the overall shape looks familiar: A small, stocky body with a disproportionate head. The poor little guy is shown as not being evil but having been created very recently and just following orders. Daphne was always kind and nurturing to Scrappy, and earns his loyalty in return-just like this. He has a lot of impressive abilities like Scrappy (although this is explained as being a very high-tech robot) While most people remember Scrappy's firey and combative attitude, Dusty picks up on Scrappy's eagerness to please and his over the top efforts to help. And finally, he joins the gang as a sixth member. Maybe in the sequel he will start to gain modifications to look more like a dog like Scooby.- Could work that way but given the film chose to start Scooby off as an orphan leaves the door open to eventually introduce any of his family they want or make new ones.
If the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe is initiated, Captain Caveman will be featured in the potential Flintstones movie.
I read somewhere that Warner Animation Group has plans to make movies based on The Flintstones, Jetsons and Wacky Races respectively.
With this in mind, Captain Caveman's seemingly unimportant role in the greater scale of SCOOB is setting up more movies.
The hypothetical Flintstones movie could take place on Mystery Island. Why else would they name the Skull of Cerberus after Fred's mother in law?
- We're not fully sure yet. Originally we were told of the Scooby, Tom and Jerry, Flintstones and Jetsons movies solo. Later we were told Scooby was gonna start a Shared Universe without direct confirmation the other three were involved. According to What Could Have Been the setting was originally gonna be Darker and Edgier and would have killed the franchise pretty much at the starting gate, so if Scoob was major reworked into what we got, the others would have been too. The Tom and Jerry movie was even switched to a live action hybrid, which i think is probably evidence they weren't included in the original plans but now are so they didn't want to make an animated Tom and Jerry that wasn't in sync with Scoob. Wacky Races joined the list more recently.
- A survey sent out by WB heavily implied they were looking into a sequel for Scoob as well as interest in movies for the characters outside the setting Scoob is in. It may be that all the sequels to Scoob's setting are gonna be Crossovers, which build to trying to figure out which characters actually deserve solo film ideas. You can introduce more obscurer characters pairing them in movies with the big guns and see which take and which don't.
Taffy Dare will be introduced in the sequel.
With Captain Caveman joining the Falcon Force during the end credits, he'll be working with Dee Dee.
Taffy could still be one of Dee Dee's friends and works or either studies history at university.
The fact that her best friend not only discovered that Neanderthals are still alive but one of them is now a member of her team could motivate a reunion.
- I don't think the Teen Angels have met yet in this setting. Considering they played multiple things for emotions from old fans, i think the rough plan is to make the formation of the Teen Angels one too. You can have them form to rescue Cavey from the ice and maybe make him stupider post thaw. Or like the above guess make the Captain Caveman we met in Scoob be Cavey Jr and have the Teen Angels find his Dad frozen in the ice above the island.
Scooby is an orphan because all the Doos are being held hostage
For years the Doo Family had been hunted and captured by a villain who knew of their connection to Peridas and had hopes of trying to use them to steal the treasure for themselves. And the two best candidates for this role are Buster McMuttmauler or Captain Slaughter Dick Dastardly caused the Notre Dame Cathedral Fire in April 15, 2019
The Coronavirus pandemic never happened in this universe
Penelope Pitstop and Peter Perfect will appeared in future sequels.
They will be depicted as stuntmen instead of racers like how Dick Dastardly was depicted as a villain instead of a racer. The Shared Universe this movie was setting up isn't happening.
As of writing this, it's been three years since Scoob! dropped. No news of any movies based on other Hanna-Barbera characters, and the sequel to this film was cancelled.. Yeah, things aren't looking good.