Summary
Velmahas been a major talking point for fans since the show’s announcement, with the Mindy Kaling-led animated reinvention of the beloved children’s show sparking controversy from the very start. However, the queer ride is now at an end, according to a recent report.
TheScooby-Doofranchisehas been a household name since its inception with the animated seriesScooby-Doo, Where Are You!in 1969, keeping kids entertained with the adventures of a group of zany youngsters and their loveable talking Great Dane, the titular Scooby-Doo, as they solve seemingly supernatural mysteries, meet celebrities and have a spooky, humorous time. Over the years, the franchise has grown into a true multimedia giant, with books, comics, toys, video games, live-action films, and several other animated shows, each bringing a different vibe to the base formula while still sticking fairly close to the same general idea. As such, fans were surprised and unimpressed whenVelmawas announced, asthe show wouldn’t even feature the iconic Scooby-Dooand would radically redesign and recharacterize the other four main characters, in addition to centering Kaling’s Velma as the singular protagonist of the series in a break from longstanding tradition.
The show released its first season and instantly became the most divisive project the franchise had ever seen by an impossibly large margin, scoring overwhelmingly negative reception from fans and leading to some surprise among viewers when it was revealed that aVelmaseason 2 was in the works at Max. However, following an equally badly received second season and a holiday special released less than two weeks ago, it seems that the show won’t be able to escape death twice. In a recent exclusive report byTVLine, it’s reported thatVelmais finally being canceled after two seasons at Max.
The streamer also released a statement confirming the decision and thanking series creator Charlie Grandy and lead Kaling on the show’s run so far. “Over the past two seasons, Mindy [Kaling] and Charlie [Grandy] have created an incredibly fun and fresh world within the iconic whodunit franchise,” the official Max statement reads. “While we won’t be moving forward with another season of the series, we thank them for their compelling coming-of-age storytelling, unrivaled clues, and hilarious hijinks.” While the show was far from successful andlearned nothing from the widely popularScooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated,despite the clear and early failings of its own approach,Velma’s voice acting, animation, and some of the more broad strokes of the plot weren’t bad and might have been much more warmly received in a different, less audacious project.
Fortunately, the franchise is still moving on into the future, with belovedScooby-DooActor Matthew Lillard Hinting at a New Project in Developmentearlier in the year and the IP still being seen as valuable in spite of the road bump that Velma presented in the public adoration. While those who enjoyed the radical spin on things won’t be getting anything of the sort again anytime soon from the franchise, the show will live on in the Max catalog, and new projects that better serve the majority of fans can take up space in the public conversation instead.
