Directed by Ethan Spaulding - known for his work on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Batman: Assault on Arkham - Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms welcomes a new, animated film to the franchise, courtesy of Warner Bros..

Designed as a sequel to Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Battle of the Realms presents an endgame tournament on Earthrealm between Lord Raiden and Shao Kahn’s Outworld barbarians. Raiden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and some new characters fight against the Outworld warriors, all while a new threat builds with Shinnok at the helm.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms Title Scene

While the plot of Battle of the Realms sounds thrilling, the animation’s title scene is the aspect that most fans are discussing. The classic Warner Bros. Animation title scene, which we all know and love, had an unexpected addition to its logo. The spectacle begins with Scorpion performing some martial arts around the logo and settling near the front of the screen, only for the logo to open like a door and for Scorpion to be dragged back to hell by Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo.

Shaggy can be seen in his usual green shirt with his loyal canine behind him, only his eyes and body are glowing green and he appears to have a considerable amount of strength and confidence as he casually steals Scorpion’s “get over here” line. This is noticeably not the Shaggy we know from the nostalgic animated show featuring the crime-solving shenanigans of the Mystery Gang. Instead, Shaggy radiates power and dominance only seen once before in a popular 2019 meme.

Ultra Instinct Shaggy Meme

First appearing in 2017, the Ultra Instinct Shaggy meme didn’t become a hit within the pop culture community until 2019. The normally frail-bodied and weak-minded character was being pitted against some of the most powerful fighters across many mediums, including Goku from Dragon Ball Z. It was the latter character that Ultra Instinct Shaggy got his name from and his newfound powers.

Once fans made the connection that NetherRealm Studios - Mortal Kombat’s developers - was parented by Warner Bros. - which owned the rights to Scooby-Doo - fans began the persistent work that they’re known for. Warner Bros. and NetherRealm became inundated with petitions and requests for Shaggy to be announced as one of the DLC characters in Mortal Kombat 11, now that he had become one of the most feared warriors in the meme-world, and Warner Bros. has now accepted Ultra Instinct Shaggy as canon - kind of.