Speaking on the Phase Hero podcast, he pointed to films from the early 2000s which he said were now being watched more widely than at the time of their release.<\/p>\n
\u201cScooby-Doo<\/a> 1 and 2 are more popular now than they ever were when they came out,\u201d he told the host Brandon Davis. <\/p>\n \u201cSo I do think there is a weird nostalgia thing happening in our industry and in the zeitgeist, because I think people are longing for ye olde times. I think that is one of the reasons I\u2019m having this moment to be honest, is because I was identified in that moment, so people are hiring me again.\u201d <\/p>\n Lillard <\/a>rose to prominence with roles like Stu Macher in Scream<\/a> (1996), went on to play Shaggy in the live-action Scooby-Doo films<\/a> released in 2002 and 2004, and acted in films like She\u2019s All That and The Descendants. <\/p>\n On the podcast, Davis joked that casting directors were looking back to find a \u201cfamiliar face from when people felt better about their lives\u201d and returning actors like Lillard to the screen hoping it would make \u201cpeople feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s why I\u2019m working. I don\u2019t think anyone really likes me,\u201d Lillard replied. \u201cThey just missed the old times.\u201d<\/p>\n Lillard appeared in the 2023 horror film Five Nights at Freddy’s as William Afton, a role that he was expected to reprise in the still-in-development third instalment of the franchise. <\/p>\n He is currently starring in Daredevil: Born Again, playing the shadowy political fixer Mr Charles. He is also appearing in the second season of the Prime Video series Cross, where he plays Lance Durand.<\/p>\n The actor returned as Stu in the seventh instalment of the Scream series<\/a>, making a surprise comeback for a character widely believed to have died in the original film after Neve Campbell\u2019s Sidney Prescott dropped a television on his head.<\/p>\n Lillard is set to appear in the forthcoming Mike Flanagan-directed miniseries Carrie, and the Tony Gilroy-directed film Behemoth!, alongside Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Will Arnett, Eva Victor, and Margarita Levieva.<\/p>\n Last year, Oscar-winning director Quentin Tarantino made headlines for saying he \u201cdidn\u2019t care for\u201d<\/a> the Scream star and actors Paul Dano<\/a> and Owen Wilson. All three instantly received an outpouring of love<\/a> from within Hollywood. <\/p>\n Lillard was defended by Flanagan, who directed him in The Life of Chuck (2024), as \u201cthe goddamn greatest\u201d. <\/p>\n He was also recruited by Ryan Reynolds<\/a> for a Mint Mobile commercial in which the Deadpool star declared in his voiceover: \u201cThere are only two things that are universally loved: saving money and beloved actor Matthew Lillard.\u201d <\/p>\n In February, Lillard said he felt like he was at his own wake<\/a> after being flooded with support following Tarantino\u2019s comments<\/a>. \u201cIt felt like I had died and was in heaven watching everyone send out their RIP tweets,\u201d he told People.<\/a> \u201cI mean, it was really nice being a part of your own wake, sort of sitting there living through all the nice things people say after you die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,8356,3334,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-552995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film-reviews","11":"tag-showbiz","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2263619245.jpg\")
Matthew Lillard says a \u2018longing for ye olde times\u2019 explains renewed interest in his past roles and why he is being cast again (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Lillard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01KBCBFN7M2KZR1J2E84QZFD79.jpg\")
Lillard returned as Stu in the seventh instalment of the Scream series, marking a surprise comeback for a character widely believed to have died in the original film (PA)<\/p>\n