Velma Season 3 Not Happening
In another instance of the thing everyone assumed would happen actually happening, HBO will not pick up Velma season 3. If you don’t remember what this show is – or blocked it out after seeing some online clips, which was probably a smart move – Velma is the reimagining of Scooby-Doo with Velma Dinkley as the lead character. Velma was also changed to a bisexual Indian woman because she was essentially turned into a self-insert for series creator Mindy Kaling. The rest of the Mystery Inc. gang was present in some form; Fred is a stupid, effete, rich guy who is constantly reminded of his white privilege; Daphne is a bisexual Asian woman; Shaggy is a black guy who goes by Norville instead of his nickname because nothing is allowed to be fun anymore. Scooby-Doo was not featured on the show, and while I’m tempted to assume it’s that no-fun thing again, it was actually because the writers couldn’t figure out how to make an adult-themed version of Scooby (because the rest of this sounds so sophisticated) and because Warner Bros. Animation wouldn’t let them use him. At any rate, it didn’t look like anyone enjoyed Velma, which, given the premise, isn’t that surprising. It returned for a second season mostly because HBO ordered two seasons at the outset; a Halloween special is on the way, but according to an Instagram post from Davey Cummings, one of the show’s background artists, Velma season 3 is a no-go. The post seems to have been deleted, but here’s what Cummings said (via Slash Film): “Backgrounds I painted for Velma Halloween Special. So fun working with this crew. There will not be a season 3, but I hope I get to work with these amazing talented people again one day. GO WATCH ‘VELMA’ HALLOWEEN SPECIAL ON MAX!!”
Again, this was expected. Velma was a laughing stock upon its release, and many YouTubers and social media posters who watched it said it was as if the concept of woke were perfectly distilled into a single show. The audience scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes are abysmal. Even many mainstream critics found it hard to defend. It came back for season 2 for the same reason Rings of Power will go on for five seasons (unless the latter becomes such a money pit that Amazon buys out whatever contracts it has) – it was bought for two seasons. I imagine the Halloween special was part of the package as well, unless HBO just desperately wanted some Halloween-themed content and couldn’t get a haunted house version of The White Lotus ready in time.
At any rate, this is the end of the road for Velma, and if anyone in Hollywood were inclined to pay attention to something besides their own navel, they might take a lesson from this. People saw this show coming a mile away, and they knew it would be a woke tornado that destroyed the series they loved. I’ve never been much of a Scooby-Doo fan, so I didn’t get too fussed over this, but it’s yet another example of bringing in an activist with an agenda, giving her a beloved property, and letting her turn it into something that doesn’t resemble the story and characters that made it famous. People don’t watch Scooby-Doo for lectures on white privilege or, by all accounts, mean-spirited humor; they watch it to see a group of silly friends solve mysteries, usually involving a fake ghost that turns out to be an old man perpetrating an insurance scam (which, for some reason, never makes them stop believing in ghosts). But we all know this won’t change anything; Velma is just the latest failure before the next one, not knocking down other dominoes so much as falling off the cliff so the next lemming can temporarily take its place. So, strap yourselves in for the new Johnny Quest, where Johnny and Hadji are a lesbian couple, and Race Bannon is played by Cedric the Entertainer.
Let us know what you think of Velma season 3 being canceled in the comments!
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