While a background artist on Velma’s recent Halloween Special might have spilled the beans a little early on the surreal animated series’ cancellation, MAX has made it official. The Warner Bros’ streaming service has confirmed that Velma Dinkley and the wild new take on Mystery Incorporated will not return for a third season. Alongside the cancellation announcement, the WB took the opportunity to comment on the series that will apparently never see a third season. Considering the controversy surrounding the series, fan response to the cancellation news has been quite across the board when it comes to animation fans.
Velma first premiered as a MAX exclusive in 2023, introducing the Scooby-Doo characters in a far more “mature” light than the original take on the mystery solvers. Introducing some crass humor to the story of Mystery Incorporated, many fans were unable to get on board with the animated show that traded in the vast majority of masked villains for high-school angst. Over the first two seasons, Scooby-Doo himself would never make an appearance though the foundation for the great dane’s appearance was certainly being laid out. In season two, a vicious version of Scrappy-Doo was introduced which was much different from the pint-sized mascot seen in the franchise’s past. Needless to say, it doesn’t seem as though the series will ever get the chance to examine a new take on Scoob.
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It’s Official
In the official MAX statement, the streaming service praised Velma, Mindy Kaling, Charlie Grandy, and the other creators responsible for bringing the two-season series to life, “Over the past two seasons, Mindy [Kaling] and Charlie [Grandy] have created an incredibly fun and fresh world within the iconic whodunit franchise. 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.”
As of the writing of this article, it has not been revealed if Velma will attempt to resurrect on another streaming service. Certainly, MAX has been known to off-board some major television projects to other platforms. Perhaps most notably, Batman: Caped Crusader was originally a MAX exclusive that was bought by Amazon Video, giving the Dark Knight a new streaming home for his latest adventure. Considering how the recent special ended, perhaps the creators will move on entirely from the controversial series.
Velma: What Season 3 Might Have Been
Velma: This Halloween Needs To Be More Special will seemingly act as the series finale for the controversial series. While the recent special does wrap up plenty of storylines, such as Velma Dinkley returning back from the grave, there is one dangling storyline that will seemingly never be addressed. Fred Jones, voiced here by It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia star Glenn Howerton, is possessed by a magical book that helps him in bringing back Velma but comes with a terrible price.
As mentioned earlier, Scooby-Doo was being built up via a subplot dubbed “Project Scoob”. A government experiment gone awry, the initiative involved taking the brains out of victims and sometimes placing them into new bodies. While we’ll never know, it’s a safe bet that this side plot would have been the springboard for Scooby-Doo to make an appearance in Velma, albeit most likely having a far different personality from the Scoob of past series in the franchise.
Want to see if this is actually the final nail in the coffin for Velma? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on the surreal animated series and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.