Netflix's Live-Action 'Scooby-Doo': Where You Know The 'Origins' Cast From

The Scooby gang is getting a live-action adaptation once again in Scooby-Doo: The Origins. It’s official—McKenna Grace is Daphne, Tanner Hagen is Shaggy, Abby Ryder Forston is Velma, and Maxwell Jenkins is Fred. Paul Walter Hauser has also joined the cast in an undisclosed role, which is equally exciting because he never misses. I even loved his turn as Harvey Elder, or Mole Man, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). Imagine him in a Scooby-Doo project! 

With the success of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969), it’s really not shocking that we’ve gotten to a point where a streamer wants to put a spin on the characters from Hanna-Barbera. Scooby-Doo: Origins isn’t like the cult classics and live adaptations Scooby-Doo (2002) or Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). The new, live-action series promises to go back to the start, where the group comes together “to solve the mystery of a lonely lost Great Dane puppy — who may have witnessed a supernatural murder,” per its Netflix description.

So, where have you seen the cast before they became some of the most iconic characters in pop culture? You can watch their projects on Disney+, Hulu, and more. 

McKenna Grace as Daphne

McKenna Grace is likely the best-known of the Scooby-Doo: Origins cast. There was a time in her career when she was playing a younger version of everyone in Hollywood. On the big screen, she was a younger Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel (2019) and a younger Tonya Harding in I, Tonya (2017). On the small screen, she also appeared as a younger Emma Swan in four episodes of Once Upon a Time (2011) and a younger Caroline Forbes in The Vampire Diaries (2009). I’d argue that her breakout role was her wide-ranging, grounded performance as Mary Adler opposite Chris Evans in Gifted (2017). 

Since then, she’s also recurred as Paige in Young Sheldon (2017), starred as Phoebe in the new Ghostbusters (1984) trilogy that started with Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and appeared as Esther Keyes in The Handmaid’s Tale (2017). I’m most excited to see her take on the role of Maysilee Donner in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026) later this year. No matter what, it seems like Grace’s path to Daphne was always set. She voiced a young version of the character for Scoob! (2020).

Tanner Hagen as Shaggy

Tanner Hagen is one of the members of this core four (minus Scooby, of course), who has the potential for Scooby-Doo: Origins to be a breakout role. He appeared in the first season of Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023) as Niels Wagner, which starred David Oyelowo in the titular role. Most of Sheridan’s shows exist under that Yellowstone (2018) umbrella; Lawmen: Bass Reeves is more of an independent watch.

More recently, Hagen clocked in at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center in The Pitt (2025) Season 1, Episode 5, “11:00 A.M.” There, he played Travis Johnson, a 17-year-old boy with post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage, only 10 days after the initial operation at a different hospital. This is the first role that I saw Hagen in, and I was immediately drawn into his performance. For most of it, he’s not able to speak, but all the emotions are in his eyes. Given how expressive Shaggy is, that kind of performance is a big vote of confidence for this role. 

Abby Ryder Fortson as Velma

Many other people and I probably first met Abby Ryder Fortson as Cassie Lang in Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). She made the character instantly lovable and the father/daughter dynamic between Cassie and Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang entirely believable. So much so, it was genuinely shocking that Avengers: Endgame (2019) decided to recast the part.

I couldn’t be more obsessed with Ryder Fortson and Rachel McAdams’ performances as Margaret and Barbara Simon, respectively, in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023). Forston’s leading performance in the adaptation of Judy Blume’s beloved book is as good as her guest performance in The Pitt Season 1. For four episodes, she plays Kristi Wheeler, a teenager who travels with her aunt to the show’s emergency department to get a medical abortion against her mom’s initial wishes. It’s an intense arc that Forston anchors. She does a great job of representing a character’s inner dialogue, which will be helpful with Velma.

Maxwell Jenkins as Fred

I first saw Maxwell Jenkins on screen as a young Will in the criminally underrated show, Sense8 (2015). He had guest appearances across NCIS: New Orleans (2014), Chicago Fire (2012), and Chicago Med (2015). Still, I didn’t fully become aware of Jenkins’ work until he starred as Will Robinson in Netflix’s Lost in Space (2018), a worthwhile remake of Lost in Space (1965). 

Jenkins’ arc sticks out to me because Will’s relationship with the show’s robot reminds me so much of why I loved The Iron Giant (1999) growing up. I think that’s the role that people will go back to when they see Jenkins as Fred in Scooby-Doo: Origins. Most recently, though, you may have seen Jenkin as a younger Reacher in the first episode of Prime Video’s Reacher (2022).