Mindy Kaling’s Velma renewed for a second season at Max
Despite mixed reviews from audiences and critics, Kaling's updated Scooby-Doo origin will live to see another season on the streamer
Aux News Velma
In what we have to admit is one of those TV developments we simply didn’t see coming, it was announced tonight that Mindy Kaling’s animated Scooby-Doo update Velma has picked up a renewal for a second season at Max. This is somewhat of a surprise, because, well… Not that many people seemed to like Velma all that much?
And we’re not just talking about the various chuds who went frothing into apoplexy the moment it was revealed that the show’s versions of classic Doo characters Velma, Shaggy, and Daphne would be—horror of horrors—non-white. But even some people who were open and amenable to the idea of a creator tinkering with a 50-year-old cartoon to update its sensibilities to better reflect the world around it seemed to be put off by the show’s humor and storytelling, which applied a sheen of dark violence to the Scooby-Doo formula.
On the other hand, pretty much everybody admitted that the show’s voice cast was top notch, with Kaling starring as Velma herself, and Sam Richardson, Glenn Howerton, and Constance Wu playing “Norville,” Fred, and Daphne, respectively. That’s in addition to a stacked cast of recurring stars rounding out the world of Mystery Inc., including Cherry Jones, Weird Al, Ming-Na Wen, Russell Peters, and more. Plus, hey: They did end the first season on a cliffhanger, suggesting there was more murderous mayhem to come.
Per Variety, news of Velma’s renewal was announced earlier today at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with Max and Adult Swim’s Suzanna Makkos breaking the news. “The series that we create at Max are art and voice driven, with character and comedy coming before anything else,” Makkos told the crowd. “We’re always looking for hard comedy with heart and edge, diverse and inclusive shows with underlying thematic resonance, and character design that showcases the hand of the artist. I am so excited to share these incredible series with the world, and continue to show why Max is a great home for adult animation.” (Even if its actual treatment of animation, adult or otherwise, has been pretty damn spotty of late.)
44 Comments
Can we trade it for more Doom Patrol?
hell yeah
They killed […gestures wildly at wreckage of HBO Warner merger…] for this?
I hope they have a multi-part episode where the gang sits down to watch a movie and they just play all of Scoob! 2 in MST3K format
I only made it through 1.5 episodes. I don’t dislike the idea and concepts behind the show, it’s just the execution did not work from what I saw.
Dicktown was much funnier if you want “adult animation semi-mystery”
I’m happy with this, but only because it’ll piss off everyone who wasted so much energy whining about this show online.
I, too, base all my opinions on what strangers from the internet think.
Then you and I would get along, friend!
Yeppppp. I have never seen an episode and likely never will (even if the reviews were great, I just personally don’t have a desire to watch something like this and I watch too much other stuff), but I love rejoicing in the comments when stuff like this gets renewed. Clicked over as soon as I saw the headline lol
Zaslav just Zaslaved his own Zaslav!
Zasception!
Not quite. He still has yet to find a way to somehow bring AEW Wresting into this (Freddy versus the Blackpool Combat Club? I’d pay dearly to see that!) or bastardize Fangface. And perhaps revive the ghost of Jamie Kellner, who slashed-and-burned much of Warners and Turner some 22 years ago.By the way, is Kellner still alive?
Yours is my ideal comment, and the reference to Fangface was the mot juste.
I liked season 1. Glad to hear we’ll be getting more.
The show should have died already- why they greenlit season two for a show that is pretty much universally hated is beyond me. What a waste of time and resources.
no es que hayan renovado para sacar una segunda temporada, si no que esta estaba hecha en gran medida desde antes que saliera la primera, ademas “criticas mixtas” no es asi, a esta seria fue una de las peores valorades en la historia por que era malisima y aunque las la interpretacion de voses haya sido buena no sirve de nada si la serie es tan mala, esta serie a lo unico que se dedicaba era hacer parecer a todos los personajes miserables y estupidos para hacer pensar que velma era inteligente y agradable cuando no lo es, mientras insulta a su propia audiencia (refiriendome a las burlas constantes contra los hombres), dando asi una seria completamente desagradable.
Maybe I’m in the minority on this, but I just don’t see the need for a dark, adult-pitched Scooby Doo (without the titular canine, yet). It’s like, why are you even using the trappings of the franchise at that point, anyway?And if you really want to tick off the knuckle-dragging bigots, put these diverse characters in a family-friendly, or even kid-centric, Scooby series. The thought of their precious white snowflake children being exposed to anything slightly outside the stereotypically-’50s WASP household causes the most entertaining meltdowns.
Except this show was hilariously hated by the woke in equal measure. It seems everyone found a reason to despise it.
I could s#it in a box and slap a pride flag on it but all you’ll have is a colorful box of s#it. I.e. Just because it’s woke doesn’t make it good.
There was a somewhat manufactured hate campaign over the “wokeness” of recreating the Scooby Gang as mostly PoC with Fred being a super privileged rich white trust fund baby…Then the show actually aired. And the little bit of anti-woke hate was swallowed up by the near universal disdain because the show fucking sucks. It’s not the changing of the characters’ races that really made anyone mad, it’s the fact that the show is full of unfunny jokes and deeply unlikable characters.
The thing is the mainstream Scooby Doo is ahead of this dreck in terms of embracing new social values. “Velma” treats having a lesbian Velma as something edgy for adult viewers. The current Scooby cartoons for kids has an openly gay Velma as just part of her character!
Except the ratings were from all of the people checking it out to see how bad it is. It’ll be interesting to see how the season 2 ratings are.
There’s no way they don’t know that. Again, what are they doing?
Hate-watching still counts as watching.
Not unless you’re a Nielsen family
I’m pretty sure the streaming services can track all viewers, without the need of Nielsen’s data.
When will Mindy Kaling’s reign of terror end?
It’s interesting that she gets all the credit and hatred for this when it’s all Charlie Grandy’s idea and he has a hand in every script. Kaling didn’t write or co-write any of the episodes.
Boo hiss, Charlie Grandy.
When will Charlie Grandy’s reign of terror end?
GRAAAAAANNNDYYYYYY!
*shakes fist at sky
*Pulls mask off Kaling to reveal Charlie Grandy.
BRILLIANT
Man, couldn’t pay for all the free publicity that dudes on the internet gave this show.They just can’t ignore something they don’t like, they have to scream and rage and weep about it so everyone validates their opinions and all they ever do is bring more attention to the thing they hate.
I mean, you literally could. You can buy them by the bucket for online posting.
The networks are never, ever going to give Mindy Kaling up. No matter how much the audience tells them they aren’t interested.
It’s not the popular opinion, but I enjoyed the show. I don’t care so much about Scooby Doo that big changes to the characters bother me. It’s a fun murder mystery show with decent comedy IMO.
“Mixed” reviews? That seems generous.
Unless you call 40% critics and 7% audience on Rottentomatoes “mixed”
Fucking hell? This?? They renewed…this? It has to be some sort of Producers style tax write off. The only good thing about the show is that it united huge and totally different demographics in agreeing how awful it was. I mean practically NO ONE liked it.
Didn’t this get renewed for a second season before the first even aired? I distinctly remember that being a thing.
I suspect this could be a similar stunt other companies have pulled where they order X amount of episodes upfront, then put them out as “seasons” even though they’re technically not; that’s what Netflix did with Cuphead. And it pretty much screws over everyone involved since they don’t get raises or anything for a new season.
I wish Sam Richardson was working on a third season of Detroiters instead
It would be amazing if this show was also a Sam Levinson show lol