Despite many high hopes for Velma, it looks like the Scooby-Doo spinoff fell flat with fans.
The animated series premiered on Thursday, Jan. 12. After its release, viewers headed to social media, venting about their disappointment with the HBO Max original, with some calling it “an insult to the franchise.”
As of writing, the show has only earned 1.8 stars on IMDb, 1.4 stars by audiences on Google, and a 46 percent rating by Top Critics (with an average audience score of 7 percent) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Velma reimagines Scooby-Doo as “an adult animated comedy series discovering the origin story of Velma Dinkley,” one of the original fiveScooby-Doo Mystery Inc. characters, now voiced by Mindy Kaling.
Kaling, who also serves as an executive producer of the show, previously expressed excitement over the series and its re-envisioning of her character, Velma, as Indian.
“We knew it would be fun for me to play Velma, but we had a conversation where Velma is white, and we have this new choice to do the show and If I’m voicing her, should she be white or should she not?” the Never Have I Ever creator told reporters earlier this fall, adding, “The essence of Velma is not necessarily tied to her whiteness. And I identify so much as her character, and I think so many people do, so it’s like, yeah, let’s make her Indian in this series.”
