Matthew Lillard’s career reset began with a fear that he might never work again. In a 2024 account by Gizmodo, which summarized a Business Insider profile, Lillard describes how the disappointment surrounding Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed helped him reconsider what he wanted from acting: not simply fame or success, but the chance to become a great actor.
When success stopped being the goal
After breaking out in the 1990s, Lillard became, in his reported words, “caught up in this drive of trying to be ‘famous,’ and the success of what I was doing.” The critical and financial failure of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed shook that ambition. Gizmodo’s summary of the Business Insider profile says the experience left him thinking he might “never work again.”
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An offer to appear on Dancing With the Stars became a moment of reflection. The opportunity helped him recognize that he “really just wanted to be a great actor.” Rather than treating visibility as the measure of a career, he began to focus on craft and on work he felt suited him.
What Lillard’s reset looked like
The shift was not a single new role or a sudden return to leading parts. Lillard explored activities beyond acting, including a liquor business, and taught acting. He also took supporting roles in series such as Good Girls, Twin Peaks, and Halt and Catch Fire, while continuing to voice Shaggy in Scooby-Doo media.
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That mix suggests a different definition of professional progress: staying engaged with performance while allowing room for teaching, business interests, and character work. The account presents the reset as a change in priorities, not as a claim that one particular role restored his career.
How Five Nights at Freddy’s brought new attention
Gizmodo credits Five Nights at Freddy’s with bringing renewed attention to Lillard, particularly among younger viewers. He was initially unsure about playing William Afton because the original scripts gave the character about two lines. As reported by Gizmodo, Lillard called accepting the part a “leap of faith.”
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Director Emma Tammi’s explanation that Afton would have a more central role in a planned trilogy helped clarify the opportunity for him. That was the plan as described in the 2024 account; it should not be read as confirmation of the franchise’s present production status.
Lillard’s perspective on returning to Scream
Lillard reportedly said he would be open to returning to Scream if asked. He also criticized the use of a shotgun by Ghostface in Scream 6 and said he hoped Scream 7 would take the series somewhere new. His stated wish was for the franchise to go “in a brand new, brave, and exciting direction so that we can sort of find different colors and different joys.” These are Lillard’s views as carried in Gizmodo’s summary, not an assessment of the films or confirmation of a return.
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The larger arc: craft over visibility
The career story in the 2024 profile moves through three distinct phases: early attention and the pull of fame, a reassessment after a high-profile disappointment, and a working life built around choices that felt right to Lillard. Supporting television roles, teaching, voice work, and later horror visibility each occupy a place in that arc without needing to be framed as a comeback in the conventional sense.
His reflection is less about escaping popular franchises than changing the standard by which he judged his work. The reported ambition was to become a great actor; the route involved accepting varied roles and remaining open to opportunities whose value might not be measured by immediate prominence.
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Read Gizmodo’s November 3, 2024 account of Lillard’s reflections, which summarizes a Business Insider profile.
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