It would probably be an understatement to say that Velma was not very well received when it was released on HBO Max last year. Serve as one Scooby-Doo prequel series, albeit one without any trace of Scooby-Doo himself, the show mainly followed a new incarnation of Velma voiced by Mindy Kaling. She also served as an executive producer on the show and creatively helped put it together with the series creator Charlie Big. The idea was to do something different with the franchise, and it certainly succeeded, for better or for worse.
Velma was flooded with bad reviews upon release and received an abysmal 7% rating with the public on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were a bit nicer, though the series was still labeled rotten with a 40% approval rating. There have been several complaints about the show, but one of the most prominent is the accusation that Velma respects or even “ruins” the Scooby-Doo franchise. In a recent interview for Emmy magazine (through ComicBook. com), Grandy addressed this criticism and clarified it Velma takes nothing away Scooby-Doobut simply as its own place carved out for itself somewhere in that world.
“The original Hanna-Barbera shows are still here to watch. We’re not erasing the originals. We just want to be a little ice planet in the outer regions of the Scooby-verse!”
Velma was created with the best of intentions
Grandy also talked about how Velma was put together. He recalled how excited Kaling was when she initially talked to him about making a show for the smartest member of Mystery Inc., a character all too often sidelined to make room for Shaggy and Scooby’s antics . As Grandy explains:
“Mindy came to me and said she’d love to work on a story with Velma… She loved the character and thought it would be funny to have her at the center of a show.”
Grandy also talked about the differences between the Mystery Inc. characters. in appearance. While Fred Jones (Glenn Howerton) remains a white male, changes have been made to the ethnicity of Velma, Norville (Sam Richardson) and Daphne (Constance Wu). Grandy explains that these characters are not “rooted” in being white, but there was nevertheless some concern that the studio would not sign off on making these changes. The powers of Warner Bros. however, were apparently excited about the idea, happy with any character changes as long as the show would be “funny and good”. As Grandy puts it:
“None of these characters are rooted in them being white. We were worried about going to Warner Bros. and asking them to do it, but they said, ‘Do it. It’s time! Just make it happen that it’s funny and good!'”
You can stream the first season of Velma on HBO Max. While there has not been a second season officially announced by the streamer, there have been reports that production started as early as season 2. As bad as most of the reviews were, the series had still attracted a lot of viewers, so maybe that was enough to secure the season renewal.