Velma is dead (for real this time) at Max

Zoinks! The Mindy Kaling-led Scooby-Doo reimagining has been canceled after two seasons

By Emma Keates | October 9, 2024 | 5:03pm

Screenshot: Max/YouTube

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Velma is dead (for real this time) at Max

In rather unsurprising news, Velma—the animated, Mindy Kaling-led take on the iconic Scooby-Doo character—has been canceled. Max finally axed the series today after two seasons of people being even weirder about it than they normally are when they don’t like a show. “Over the past two seasons, Mindy [Kaling] and (creator) Charlie [Grandy] have created an incredibly fun and fresh world within the iconic whodunit franchise,” Max said in a statement about the cancelation, via Variety. “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.”

Over the course of its two seasons, Velma’s “origin story” dabbled in some of the zaniest worldbuilding on TV, with plotlines following a Breakfast Club-themed musical, swapped brains, and a “dong removing serial killer.” They even killed Velma at the end of season two, only to turn her into a ghost and bring her back to life months later in a Halloween special. We may never see something so balls-to-the-wall on Max again. The Mindy Kaling-led voice cast also included Glenn Howerton, Sam Richardson, Constance Wu, Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Sarayu Blue, Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Cherry Jones, Frank Welker, Nicole Byer, Gary Cole, Andia Winslow, and Sara Ramirez.

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While not always the biggest fan of the show itself, The A.V. Club‘s Saloni Gajjar shouted out the series for its positive South Asian representation in an essay last year. “Personally, Velma struck a chord with me despite its generic mystery and cheesy one-liners because it shows a messy, unsure-of-herself brown teen striving to do better,” she wrote. “And it’s especially poignant because of the disappointing and limited South Asian representation in animation… it’s contemporary shows like Velma… that help change audiences’ perspectives and hit home for yours truly.”

While she hasn’t publicly commented on the cancellation as of this writing, Mindy Kaling has other irons in the fire. You can watch the new teaser for season three of her show The Sex Lives Of College Girls now.