James Gunn’s Horribly Underrated Monster-Comedy Movie Series Is Now Streaming on Netflix

SUMMARY

• Two of James Gunn's best adaptations are available to stream on Netflix.
• Scooby-Doo and it's sequel remains one of the most fondly remembered franchises in Gunn's filmography.
• Gunn is on his way to reshape the landscape of superhero cinema with his DCU.

James Gunn has had a filmography that has made him a mainstay of the superhero cinema. Be it The Suicide Squad, The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, or Superman, it is easy to forget that the man is responsible for some of the greatest live-action adaptations of some of the most famed childhood cartoons.

Credits: James Gunn via IMAX / YouTube

Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, are some of the most fondly remembered films in James Gunn’s filmography before his mainstream superhero days. Both these films had a cast that could perfectly portray the characters, and now, they are readily available to stream.

Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed can be streamed on Netflix

The Cast of Scooby-Doo || Credit: Mosiac Media Group

Both of the seminal films that managed to translate one of the most iconic animated properties to live-action are now streaming on Netflix, making them more accessible than ever to the modern audience. James Gunn‘s signature comedy lent itself well to a story like that of Scooby-Doo’s, which opted for a fully CGI dog, instead of a live-action one, which would have been the route other directors and creatives would have taken.

It is choices like this that have made the films of the most memorable IPs of the early 2000s, adapting a story that could have been very easily messed up. The cast was perfect in the roles that they played, with Freddie Prinze Jr. essaying the role of Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar playing Daphne, Matthew Lillard playing Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini essaying the role of Velma.

James Gunn is taking a novel approach to building out the DCU

Credits: David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan in Superman / Warner Bros.

In the DCEU and the MCU, the universe had an ‘insight incident’ of sorts, that caused the emergence of superheroes in large numbers. Be it the emergence of Iron Man in the MCU, or Zod’s invasion in the DCU, these incidents dramatically increase the number of superheroes in their respective universe.

However, the DCU is going to take a novel approach, establishing the existence of heroes way before its first film even takes off in the form of Superman. This will give the story a richer history, and focus on crafting a connected narrative, that James Gunn himself has admitted will be more in line with Star Wars than anything we have seen. This is done by shows like Invincible, which have fleshed out the tradition of superhero-ing in their universe before the main plot of the story kicks off.

Superman will hit theatres on July 11, 2025.

Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed can be streamed on Netflix.

Written by Anuraag Chatterjee

Articles Published: 1212

Anuraag Chatterjee, Web Content Writer
With a passion for writing fiction and non fiction content, Anuraag is a Media Science graduate with 2 year's experience with Marketing and Content, with 3 published poetry anthologies. Anuraag holds a Bacherlor's degree in Arts with a focus on Communication and Media Studies.