A few months after it was canceled, director Michael Kurinsky reveals that Scoob! A Holiday Haunt has been completed, but still won't be released. The animated follow-up was expected to be a prequel to the 2020 animated movie reboot, which would explore the iconic Mystery Inc. gang in their younger years with Frank Welker, Iain Armitage, Ariana Greenblatt, Pierce Gagnon and Mckenna Grace all slated to reprise their roles. Development and production was moving along smoothly until Scoob! A Holiday Haunt was scrapped this past August, but that didn't stop the director from forging on ahead.
In a recent interview with Scoob! A Holiday Haunt's cancelation. The director revealed that he has completed the movie, in spite of it being axed, but says that it doesn't mean the animated prequel will see the light of day anytime soon. See what Kurinsky explained below:
The reason we were able to finish this movie is because it was already paid for. I can’t say it was [Warner Bros] saying, 'Please finish this movie, we want you to.' I think it was more like, 'Finish the movie because we’ve paid to finish the movie.' At the end of the day, I don’t care why and how it got finished. I’m glad it got finished because so many people worked so hard to make something so beautiful and really great. The thing that has not changed here, regardless of us being done with picture, is that Warner Bros. Discovery cannot monetize this movie now. To get that $40 million tax write-off, they cannot make money from it. So, there is no scenario where they can sell it, stream it, anything. They just can’t because any move they would make would monetize it, and then they would lose their tax write-off.
Scoob! 2's Shock Cancelation Explained
Scoob! A Holiday Haunt's cancelation left many audiences surprised, given the film's ability to bring families to HBO Max and help boost their subscription numbers. The decision largely stems from the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, in which new CEO David Zaslav inherited $3 billion in debt from previous studio head Toby Emmerich, and sought to return the studio to exclusively theatrical releases, rather than building up their streaming platforms, as planned by his predecessor. Scoob! A Holiday Haunt wasn't the only notable film to end up on the chopping block following the merger, with the DC Universe-set Batgirl also getting the axe, despite similarly being mostly complete and testing well with audiences.
As Kurinsky notes, even though WBD allowed him and his team to complete Scoob! A Holiday Haunt, the likelihood that the film will ever see the light of day remains slim to none. The primary reason comes from the fact that, by taking a tax write-off to shelve the film in favor of releasing it, the studio would ultimately owe money should they ever try to monetize it in the future. Given the original Scoob! flopped at the box office during its pandemic-set release, and was only a modest success on VOD, it's understandable the studio would rather take the tax write-off than attempt to take a risk on its release.
Unlike Batgirl before it, however, it is interesting to hear that Kurinsky and his team were allotted the opportunity to complete Scoob! A Holiday Haunt, leaving some hopeful that the studio may one day change their minds on the possibility. Even if they don't, audiences won't be hurting for Scooby-Doo-related content in the near future, with Mindy Kaling's Velma set to premiere on HBO Max in early 2020 and bring an adult-oriented approach to the franchise. In the meantime, audiences can revisit the wide range of the Scooby-Doo franchise available to stream on HBO Max now.
Source: Variety
