Buffy The Vampire Slayer

09:00am ET, 15-March-04

Scooby Stars Hold Out

Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard, two of the stars of the upcoming sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, have already signed to reprise their roles in a possible third film, but co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and her real-life husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., have not, producer Charles Roven told SCI FI Wire. Cardellini (Velma) and Lillard (Shaggy) are "enthusiastic" about the franchise, but Gellar (Daphne) and Prinze (Fred) are more "cautious" about committing too far in advance, Roven said in an interview while promoting Scooby 2.

"The reality is this," Roven said. "We have individuals. They all have their own particular career goals ... and career desires. At the time that we started to make the deals for Scooby 2, ... even if you’re not guaranteeing there’s going to be a Scooby 3, you’re going to want to talk about it. Matthew and Linda were very, very enthusiastic about where their characters had come from and where they were going and felt more positive about seeing out that far into the future and being able to say, ’Hey, you know what? We don’t care what we’re going to be doing. We’re ready to go.’ I think Freddie and Sarah were a little bit more cautious about that."

Gellar began production on Scooby 2 almost the day after she completed shooting the final episode of her TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "Sarah was just coming to the end of Buffy," Roven said. "I don’t think that she realized what the future held out there for her, so I think she just wanted to be a little more cautious about making a longer-term commitment out into the future. And Freddie, actually, ... he goes back and forth about how much longer he wants to stay acting. Whether he wants move into other areas of the entertainment business as a writer or director. And I think he didn’t want to make that kind of a long-term commitment because he didn’t know also where his career was taking [him]." Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed opens March 26.