Freddie Prinze Jr. Reveals ‘Scooby-Doo 2′ Pay Cut for Co-Stars’ Salaries: ‘Screw That’

Samantha Bergeson
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Freddie Prinze Jr. is calling out the “Scooby-Doo” production almost two decades later.

The star of Warner Bros.’ 2004 “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” revealed that the studio asked him to take a pay cut so that his co-stars could receive raises. (Other cast members included Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, and Matthew Lillard.)

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“I remember thinking, ‘Hold up, who’s giving them the raise? Me or y’all?'” Prinze Jr. told Esquire. “Like we made you guys three-quarters of a billion dollars, you can’t afford to pay them what I’m making on this? Screw that.”

The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” alum alleged that the studio also disclosed his salary to the press in an effort to get him to agree. “My ego was so angry,” he said.

The 2002 original film “Scooby-Doo” grossed $275 million. Its sequel, “Monsters Unleashed,” landed $181 million at the box office.

Looking back, Prinze Jr. admitted that the “Scooby-Doo” films have their own lasting legacy with fans.

“All these people that had grown up loving those [‘Scooby-Doo’] movies started reaching out,” the “Christmas With You” star said. “And then I got what I felt was a more accurate perspective on what that movie meant to people because I was no longer viewing it through the lenses of the studio.”

However, “Scooby-Doo” was infamously rife with frustrations both behind and in front of the camera. Prinze Jr. noted that the script he signed on for wasn’t made, and writer James Gunn also called out the studio for “destroying mysteries.”

“The first ‘Scooby-Doo’ was originally intended (by me, the producers & the director, Raja Gosnell) to be PG-13, but we never got a PG-13 rating,” Gunn tweeted earlier this year. “The first rating from the MPAA was R, & then a bunch of stuff was changed, & that cut ended up being rated PG.”

In 2020, Gunn revealed that he wanted Linda Cardellini’s Velma to be a lesbian, but those plans were scrapped due to studio pushback.

“In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” he wrote. “But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).”

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