Matthew Lillard Thought ‘Scooby-Doo 2’ Would Make Him ‘No. 1 on the Call Sheet for the Next 10 Years’

Matthew Lillard had much, much higher expectations for the infamous 2004 box-office bomb “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.”

At the time, Lillard had secured the biggest salary of his career to reprise the role of Shaggy for the sequel film. The original live-action/CGI feature “Scooby-Doo” was a massive success in 2002, and the James Gunn-penned film franchise poised Lillard to become an A-list star…or so he thought.

“I thought I’d be No. 1 on the call sheet for the next 10 years of movies,” Lillard told Business Insider. “And the reality was the exact opposite happened.”

Instead, “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” forced Lillard to reexamine his career. After appearing in Wes Craven’s “Scream” prior to “Scooby,” Lillard had to decide whether he wanted to be famous or a “great actor,” in a binary sense.

“I was caught up in the success of what I was doing, I was caught up in the parts I was getting, I was caught up in this drive to be ‘famous,’” Lillard said. “I was going to do ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ And I was like, if I do ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ I’ll never win an Academy Award. If I do ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ I’ll be famous and not a great actor, and I really just wanted to be a great actor.”

He added, “I said [to my agent], ‘I just want to be an actor. I just want to be in movies. I want to reset my expectations.’ I’ve gone through good patches and bad patches. I’ve been irrelevant and thought I was never going to work again.”

Lillard later went on to star in “The Descendants” and Clint Eastwood’s “Trouble With the Curve.” He returned to horror with hit film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” based on the video game.

Lillard recently told Entertainment Tonight that he would be open to returning to the “Scream” franchise as well.

“I am always going to advocate for [my character] Stu to come back,” Lillard said. “He could live through such horrific things. If it made sense for the fans, if it made sense for the franchise, I would love to come back, but they certainly don’t need me, that’s for sure. But it would be awesome.”