Many of you will remember Matthew Lillard's phenomenal work playing Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed movies. At the moment, though, his company - Find Familiar Spirits - has just launched its second super-premium whiskey, Quest's End: Rogue, aimed at fans of fantasy and gaming (you can learn more about that here).
Founded by Lillard and screenwriter Justin Ware, with Blue Run Spirits co-founder Tim Sparapani as an advisor, the whiskey was selected, blended, and proofed by Master Blender Alé Ochoa and is accompanied by a new chapter of the original fantasy saga, Dawn of the Unbound Gods.
We'll bring you the full interview about the second launch soon (in the meantime, you can watch it below). During our conversation with Matthew this week after first chatting to him last year about Quest's End debut, we asked whether his time as Shaggy has ended.
Since 2004, he's lent his voice to the character in a long list of animated projects, but was overlooked - much to the chagrin of fans - for Scoob! (where Will Forte took over). Thankfully, the actor has confirmed he's already working on a new Scooby-Doo project and hopes to continue returning to the role for as long as the franchise will have him.
"I’m really excited about [Scooby-Doo]. I can’t really talk about it yet, but there’s a new project I’m associated with that will allow kids to put themselves into a Scooby-Doo adventure," Lillard teased. "That’s super fun. For me, that’s my day job. It’s my bread and butter."
"For me, being Shaggy for so many years and holding space for that part while honouring Casey Kasem, I know eventually I’ll pass that part to the next generation as he did. I’m honoured to do that for as long as they’ll have me. Scooby-Doo is always in cycle in some capacity or another. We’re either doing a cartoon or a movie or a commercial for something."
"There are a million different iterations of it and something is always in the works," he concluded. "I’ve had the privilege and honour of being that voice for the last 16 or 17 years, so I will hold on to that as long as I can."
The planned Scoob! sequel, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, was scrapped by Warner Bros. Discovery as a tax write-off despite being almost completed. That leaves the door open to a new take on the series, of course, and we're optimistic Lillard will be involved with that one.
Watch the full interview below: