Scooby-Doo landed in US cinemas 23 years ago today, so what better way to celebrate than by revisiting James Gunn’s original R-rated vision, including a deleted scene that somehow manages to be scarier than anything in the actual movie.
Yes, that Scooby-Doo. The one where Shaggy falls in love with a girl named Mary Jane (because “that’s his favorite name”), Fred and Daphne get body-swapped, and Scooby punches someone in the face dressed as a grandma.
Despite being a PG-rated family comedy, it became a cult classic – and for good reason. For starters, the cast’s perfect. Matthew Lillard basically becomes Shaggy, Linda Cardellini is a scene-stealing Velma, and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. are the ultimate Daphne and Fred.
On top of that, the movie’s got a catchy soundtrack, one-liners galore, and a kind of chaotic, campy early-00s energy you don’t get anymore. But beneath the Scooby Snacks and fart jokes lies a whole other version of this movie – one that Gunn, who wrote the script, has openly talked about.
Scooby Doo’s locker room demon scene is pure nightmare fuel
His R-rated version was raunchier, darker, and very much not for kids. And while most of it never saw the light of day, one deleted scene in particular has earned acclaim online (and even made it to the DVD version of the PG-13 Scooby Doo).
In the locker room scene in question, Velma is wearing a revealing bikini, but it’s the horror movie vibes that make it truly terrifying. It starts when Daphne walks in and realizes Velma isn’t acting herself.
That’s because she’s not – she’s been possessed. When Daphne asks about the “creatures,” the atmosphere drops. Velma slowly turns around, cracks her neck to the side, and gives her best Linda Blair impression with a demonic scream.
The whole scene plays out like a slice of horror dropped into a slapstick comedy. And maybe that’s why it never made the final cut. Apparently, conservative audiences found the original cut too adult and so a number of scenes and jokes were cut, but fans of the Scooby-Doo franchise think it’s a travesty.
As one wrote on Film Boards back in 2009, “The test audience should deserve to be punished. The locker room scene was amazing and Linda’s performance was dead-on scary!
“Hello! The movie was aimed at teenagers and adults who grew up with the show, so why would there be a problem with some girls who showed up in normal bikinis for two odd seconds?”
“Honestly I wouldn’t mind this scene,” said another, while a third added, “My friends and I were watching the deleted scenes on the DVD for this, and were laughing our asses off.”
It’s easy to laugh about now, but this isn’t just a one-off. The locker room demon moment is just one example of what’s now commonly referred to as the Gunn Cut.
What was the Gunn Cut of Scooby-Doo?
James Gunn has been open about the fact that his original script for Scooby-Doo was rated R. In his version, Velma was openly gay, Fred was bisexual and a bit of a narcissist, and Shaggy’s stoner tendencies weren’t just implied – they were the joke.
At one point, there was a filmed kiss between Velma and Daphne (while possessed), and Gunn has said studio execs even digitally reduced cleavage in post-production to make the whole thing more family-friendly.
What made it to screens was a trimmed-down, PG-rated cut, pieced together after test audiences reacted badly to the more risqué material.
Still, even with all that toned-down chaos, the film we did get is a stone-cold classic. It’s absurd, campy, and endlessly quotable. It also holds up remarkably well in 2025 – not just as a nostalgic trip, but as a rare live-action cartoon adaptation that fully commits to the bit. You can thank Gunn’s script for that, even in its scaled-back form.
Will we ever see the full R-rated cut?
Warner Bros.In short, no. There’s been growing interest in the Gunn Cut in recent years, especially with the popularity of “release the cut” campaigns (the Snyder Cut comes to mind). As said by one Redditor, “We need a rerelease the way James Gunn intended the movie to be.”
But so far, there’s no official word on whether the R-rated Scooby-Doo will ever surface in full. And it’s unlikely, given Gunn himself has said some of the footage is lost, and what remains may not even be usable.
Still, every deleted scene that trickles online gives us a glimpse into the version that could’ve scarred (or, let’s face it, entertained) a generation of tweens.
So, next time you rewatch Scooby-Doo and Scoob’s giant CGI tongue flops out, just remember: in another dimension, there’s a version of this movie where Velma goes full Exorcist and Shaggy definitely knows what 4/20 means.
Zoinks, indeed.
Scooby-Doo is currently available for streaming on Max. You can also check out the best new movies coming to streaming this month, the top films of 2025 so far, and the best video game adaptations.
