‘Scoob!’ Sequel Canceled: Scooby-Doo’s ‘Holiday Haunt’ Joins ‘Batgirl’ in Warner Bros.’ Trash Pile

Batgirl is not the only Warner Bros. movie the studio scrapped on Tuesday. Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, a holiday-themed sequel to the 2020 Scooby-Doo movie, was also canceled. It’s unclear how far along Holiday Haunt was in production, but it was included in a December 2021 teaser of upcoming HBO Max projects.

Holiday Haunt had a budget in the $40 million range, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Scoob! production designer Michael Kurinsky and animation supervisor Bill Haller were directing the project, according to a previously released synopsis. Paul Dini and Scoob! director Tony Cervone wrote the script, which chronicled Scooby-Doo’s first Christmas with a 10-year-old Shaggy. They visit a holiday resort owned by Fred’s Uncle Ned, and the team solves a mystery to save Christmas and learn the true meaning of the holiday.

Some voice acting was already completed, as The Mandalorian star Ming-Na Wen posted a video of herself being recorded in February. “I love voice acting. Can you tell? Working on another iconic franchise. [Scooby-Doo] with some great boos here. It comes out for the holidays,” Wen captioned the video.

Scoob! was one of the many movies impacted by the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The film was released for digital distribution in May 2020, before it was finally given a limited theatrical release in July 2020, while many parts of the country still had strict COVID restrictions. It was released to HBO Max in June 2020 and had a limited theatrical re-release in May 2021. Scoob! grossed $28.5 million worldwide and reportedly had a budget of $90 million.

In June 2021, Cervone told ComicBookMovie.com that a Scoob! sequel was being kicked around, in addition to the holiday special. “It hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s something we’re all excited about,” Cervone said at the time. “The whole creative team that made the first movie is still around and back and working on something new. It was neat to create this Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe, and it’s exciting to return to it.” The sequel has still never been announced, and it seems more unlikely now that the holiday special isn’t happening.

Batgirl‘s cancelation was a big shocker on Tuesday since the movie was completely filmed. It was expected to hit HBO Max before the end of 2022 and stars In The Heights breakout Leslie Grace in the title role. Bad Boys For Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah directed it. Michael Keaton also made a much-publicized return as Batman and J.K. Simmons returned as Commissioner Jim Gordon. It was also expected to be part of Brendan Fraser’s comeback, as he played the villain Firefly. The movie cost about $90 million to make, which was too expensive for a streaming-exclusive release, but not enough to result in the kind of production values audiences want from a theatrical release. At least, that’s how Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav appears to see it.