It seems like WB has finally responded to the "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" meme that has been all over the Internet for the past several years. A scene from Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur where Shaggy fights a biker gang was mashed up on YouTube with Dragon Ball Z music, to make it seem like Shaggy was all-powerful. After the video went viral, a petition to include Shaggy in a Mortal Kombat game began gaining millions of signatures. Though the Mortal Kombat creators responded to this petition saying that it would never happen, it looks like people may have finally gotten their wish. In the latest Mortal Kombat film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, Shaggy can be seen coming out of the WB logo punching and knocking out one of the characters. You can watch the opening scene above.

Hello everyone! In the past few years, I've done a couple of things around Scooby's anniversary, most prominently the fan spotlights. I'm excited to share that the fan spotlights will be returning this year, beginning tomorrow through September 13! Each day, a different fan will be spotlighted in an interview-style profile. I tried to pick a very diverse group of fans, including regular commenters on the blog, people who are active on the ScoobyAddicts forum, fanfiction writers, and many more! I'm really excited for you to meet these 13 people and I hope you enjoy the fan spotlights over the next 13 days!

In addition to the typical fun facts every Monday and polls every Sunday, I'll also be posting several editorial articles over the course of the next few weeks, an interview with someone who has worked on the Scooby franchise, and an article on the blog and site's evolution on the seven-year anniversary of starting the site (which is already coming up this Friday!).

I hope you're looking forward to these next few weeks as much as I am, because there's going to be a ton of content on the blog! :)

According to Mark Evanier's "Scrappy Days: The Birth of Scrappy-Doo and What I Had to Do With It" article, Frank Welker was one of the people originally considered to voice Scrappy. Other perhaps surprising voice actors that could have been Scrappy included Marilyn Schreffler (who voiced Winnie in Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School), Daws Butler (who voiced Scooby-Dum), and Mel Blanc (who voiced Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman and Barney Rubble). In addition, Howard Morris and Marshall Efron were also suggested as voices, whose only contributions to the Scooby-Doo franchise ironically were both in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. Howard Morris was the voice of Bogel, in addition to Platypus Duck, who appeared in the episode "Scooby in Kwackyland." Ironically, Marshall Efron's only contribution to the Scooby franchise was also in "Scooby in Kwackyland" as Platypus Duck's archnemesis, the Lousy Lizard.

If you haven't already, you can read the whole story of how Scrappy-Doo was created on Mark Evanier's blog. 

Given the big news last week, I thought it might be fun to have a poll on what people think Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo is!

Here are the results for last week's poll. I'm shocked Laff a Lympics and Get a Clue got votes, whereas The New Scooby-Doo Movies  and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo got nothing!
What is your favorite Scooby-Doo premiere episode?
What a Night for a Knight - 23
Beware the Beast from Below - 20
​Mystery 101 - 10
​There's No Creature Like Snow Creature - 6
High Rise Hair Raiser - 6
Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo - 5
To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before - 3
Revenge of the Swamp Monster! - 3
Scooby Ghosts West - 2
Swiss Alps and Tokyo - 1
Shags to Riches - 1
The Scarab Lives - 1
Hound of the Scoobyvilles - 1
​Ghastly Ghost Town - 0
Maltese Mackerel - 0
A Bicycle Built for Boo - 0

The Swedish release site CDON.se now lists the back cover image for Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog. The back cover image is admittedly a little blurry on the site, though it appears that the the text is in four different languages (none of them being English). Thanks so much to The Cop for sharing this info with me!

A brand new Scooby-Doo project has been announced! According to the DisneyTVandNews Twitter account, a production flyer for the show Hamster and Gretel lists two WB shows, Bugs Bunny Builder and Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo. Oddly, the logo uses Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? animation, so perhaps the animation for this project just hasn't been decided upon yet. This will be produced by Snipple Animation. Keep in mind that this has not been officially announced by WB yet, so it is very possible that things may change and I would recommend taking this with a grain of salt for the time being until we find out more details.

Scooby-Doo was once almost drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, alongside a wooden chair, in 1977. However, the league didn't agree to either of those selections and ultimately ended up declining Scooby as a draft pick. Do you think the wooden chair was a dealbreaker haha?

Here are the results for last week's poll, and it looks like the option I thought would win ended up winning by a huge margin!
Who is your favorite recurring character in the Scooby franchise?
The Hex Girls - 36
Vincent Van Ghoul - 12
Sheriff Stone - 10
Marcie (Hot Dog Water) - 6
Professor Pericles - 6
Red Herring - 4
Flim Flam - 3
Angel Dynamite - 3
Mr. E - 3
Del Chillman - 2
Crissy and the Secret Six - 2
Agents 1 and 2 - 2
Simone - 2
Gibby Norton - 1
Mayor Jones - 1
Nova - 1
Weerd and Bogel - 0
Mr. O'Greazy - 0
Mr. B - 0
Brad Chiles - 0
Judy Reeves - 0
Mayor Janet Nettles - 0
Jenkins - 0
Robi - 0
Dr. Phibes - 0

Here are the Scooby comic solicitations for November 2021. GamesRadar+'s (the site I get these solicitations from) headline for the solicitations this month bluntly states "A whole lot of Batman," so I guess we know what we're getting? haha

The married couple that the gang stayed with in "Snow Place Like Home" (A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), Mr. and Mrs. Morganson, are voiced by a real-life married couple, Maggie Roswell and Hal Rayle. Interestingly, the couple had just gotten married only a year before the episode premiered, and are still married today. Maggie Roswell is perhaps best known for her role as Maude Flanders on The Simpsons.

Thanks so much to Ben for coming up with today's fun fact!