Velma Creator comments on negative reviews
It would probably be an understatement to say that Velma wasn’t very well received when it released on HBO Max last year. serve as Scooby Doo prequel series, albeit devoid of any trace of Scooby-Doo himself, the show mostly followed a new incarnation of Velma, as voiced by Mindy Kaling. She also served as an executive producer on the show and creatively helped put the series together with the series creator Charlie Grandy. The idea was to do something different with the franchise, and it certainly accomplished that, for better or for worse.
Velma was showered with poor reviews upon its release, earning a miserable 7% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were a little kinder, although the series was still called lazy with a 40% approval rating. There have been a variety of complaints about the show, but one of the most prominent is the allegation that Velma disrespectful or even “ruins” the Scooby Doo Franchise. In a recent interview for Emmy Magazine (via ComicBook.com), Grandy addressed and clarified those criticisms Velma doesn’t take anything away Scooby Doobut only in such a way that it has carved its own little place somewhere in this world.
“The original Hanna-Barbera shows are still out there. We do not delete the originals. We just want to be a little ice planet in the outer reaches of Scooby-verse!
Velma was created with the best of intentions
Grandy also talked about how Velma was compiled. He recalled how enthusiastic Kaling was when she initially spoke to him about creating a show for Mystery Inc.’s smartest member, a character all too often placed on the sidelines to make room for Shaggy’s and Scooby’s antics make. As Grandy explains:
“Mindy came to me and said she’d like to work on a story with Velma… She loved the character and thought it would be fun to have her as the focus of a show.”
Grandy also spoke about the differences from the Mystery Inc. characters in terms of looks. While Fred Jones (Glenn Howerton) remains a white male, changes were made to the ethnicities of Velma, Norville (Sam Richardson) and Daphne (Constance Wu). Grandy explains that these characters aren’t “rooted” in being white, but there were still some concerns that the studio wouldn’t sign off on these changes. However, those in charge at Warner Bros. were apparently enthusiastic about the idea and happy about any character changes as long as the show would be “fun and good”. As Grandy puts it:
“None of these characters have white roots. We were worried about going to Warner Bros. and asking them to do it, but they said, ‘Do it. It’s time! Just make sure it’s fun and good!’”
You can stream the first season of Velma on HBO Max. While a second season wasn’t officially As announced by the streamer, there were already reports on the production of 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.
