Jinkies indeed! After two divisive seasons, Max won’t be renewing Mindy Kaling’s adult animated series Velma for another season. The show, starring Kaling as the voice of Velma Dinkley, lasted for two seasons before Max ripped off its mask, revealing a cancelation notice where a mustache-twirling villain’s head should be. The cancelation of Velma hits hard for fans of the series who genuinely enjoy Kaling’s unique spin on the Scooby gang and their darkly-themed misadventures.
“Over the past two seasons, Mindy [Kaling] and Charlie [Grandy] have created an incredibly fun and fresh world within the iconic whodunit franchise,” Max said in a statement. “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.”
Velma found the brainy Scooby-Doo character, striving to balance her detective work with her newfound popularity while surrounded by people who want her to fail. The show features members of Mystery Inc., including Fred (Glen Howerton), Daphne (Constance Wu), and Norville (Sam Richardson), with guest actors Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Ken Leung, Cherry Jones, Frank Welker, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Fortune Feimster, Yvonne Orji, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Byer, Ming-Na Wen, Shay Mitchell, Debby Ryan, Kulap Vilaysak, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Velma got off to a rocky start in January 2023 when a vocal contingency of viewers criticized the show’s changes to classic characters. In addition to confirming Velma’s liking for the ladies (which we always knew was the case), the show introduced Norville Rogers as a stand-in for the property’s lanky sandwich-stacking stoner, Shaggy Rogers. Despite the show’s effort to appeal to audiences outside those who grew up watching Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, Velma struggled to find dedicated viewers.
“It is a tremendous privilege to build on the 100-year plus legacy of ‘cartoons’ at this company. We can draw a straight line from our hundreds of childhood hours spent watching Bugs outwit Elmer to the current slate of adult animated projects we are building here at HBO Max and we think fans will agree,” Suzanna Makkos, the EVP of Original Comedy and Adult Animation, at HBO Max, said when the show launched in 2023.
“We are proud to introduce this distinctive group of series from a wide range of diverse creators that will form a first stop destination for animation lovers everywhere.”
Pour one out for Velma, friends. It was fun while it lasted.