Velma creator defends Scooby-Doo spinoff after backlash

❘ Published: 2023-05-01T10:08:05

HBO Max

Velma creator Charlie Grandy has hit back at the show’s negative reviews and backlash, coming after Season 2 of the Scooby-Doo spinoff entered development.

The Scooby-Doo franchise has taken all sorts of forms since its inception, whether it’s the original cartoon series, a long list of animated movies, the beloved live-action films, and crossovers with Batman and the WWE.

Velma, a new animated series chronicling the origin story of the orange turtle-necked, bespectacled brains of Mystery Inc’s meddling kids, hit HBO Max in January this year. It was derided upon release; while it has a 40% score on Rotten Tomatoes, its audience rating is sitting at just 7%.

Yet, all of that criticism clearly spiked people’s interest in the show, as development on the second season was reported shortly after it debuted.

Velma creator responds to negative reviews

Grandy, who’s the show’s creator, showrunner, and executive producer, recently spoke to Emmy Magazine about the critical response and accusations of “ruining” Scooby-Doo.

“The original Hanna-Barbera shows are still out there to watch. We are not erasing the originals. We just want to be a little ice planet on the outer regions of the Scooby-verse,” he said.

Scooby himself doesn’t make an appearance in the show, for two reasons: it’s an adult show, so his inclusion didn’t make sense; and Warner Bros. said no. “We couldn’t get a take on it,” Grandy added.

“How do we do it in a fun modern way? What made it a kids’ show is Scooby-Doo. This coincided with Warner Bros. telling us we couldn’t use the dog. So it’s nice to allude to dogs in the world and leave it at that.”

It stars Mindy Kaling (who’s also a producer) as Velma Dinkley, Sam Richardson as Norville ‘Shaggy’ Rogers, Constance Wu as Daphne Blake, and Glenn Howerton as Fred Jones.

Velma is available to stream on HBO Max now. Check out our other upcoming movie hubs below: