Velma Season 2 on Max did not include the franchise's leading character, Scooby-Doo, and fans are wondering why.
The classic Scooby-Doo team is brought back in a mature-rated TV setting for Velma behind Mindy Kaling, giving fans a unique look at Velma Dinkley's origin story.
Although Season 1 garnered awful reviews (including a dismal 7% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes), Max renewed the series for a second season, which arrived on April 25.
Scooby's Absence from Velma Season 2 Explained
As is the case with Season 1, Velma Season 2 is missing the presence of the fan-favorite talking dog, Scooby-Doo.
The series features the rest of the classic Mystery, Inc. gang, including Mindy Kaling as Velma Dinkley, Constance Wu as Daphne Blake, Sam Richardson as Shaggy Rogers, and Glenn Howerton as Fred Jones.
Speaking with Variety, showrunner Charlie Grandy gave a couple of big reasons why Scooby did not make it into either of Velma's two seasons.
Outside of the fact that Warner Bros. mandated Scooby's absence, Grandy explained that Scooby made the original series feel like "a kids' show," with Velma embracing a more adult tone:
"It felt like what made it a kids’ show was Scooby-Doo. That coincided with Warner Bros. Animation saying, 'Hey, you can’t use the dog.' So we were like, ‘Great, this works out well.'"
She continued on the subject with Business Insider, making it clear that the team wanted to take a "respectful" approach to bringing the Scooby-Doo legacy into this light:
"When we were going into the show and thinking about adapting it, we wanted to be respectful. We didn't want to just kind of take these beloved characters and put them in outrageous or gross situations and say, 'Isn't it crazy you did that to Velma?'"
In the end, she and her team could not find a way to reinvent the show "in a fun, modern way" that also included Scooby in the story:
"We couldn't get a take on it that was like, 'How do we kind of do this in a fun, modern way?' That felt like what made it a kid show was, Scooby-Doo."
Moving away from the creative side, Grandy further confirmed that Warner Bros. did not give the series permission to use Scooby but did not comment further:
"I think it's nice to kind of allude to dogs in the world. It's fun and let's just kinda leave it that.
Interestingly, while Scooby was barred from appearing in the series, Velma Season 2 did include Scrappy-Doo, bringing a terrifying take on the aggressive mutt as the season's main villain.
Could Scooby-Doo Appear in Velma Season 3?
Frankly, many fans were shocked when Velma was renewed for Season 2 after its first season became one of the most disappointing Scooby-Doo entries in franchise history.
While Max and Warner Bros. likely split up the first set of produced episodes into two seasons during development, the real surprise would be seeing Velma continue into Season 3.
Should that happen, Scooby's potential appearance in Velma is certainly possible, but that would all depend on whether Warner's mandate on the character's inclusion has changed.
Scrappy-Doo's debut in Season 2 surely could have helped change the studio's mind on that front, but with so much in the air right now, it is impossible to predict whether Scooby will ever see the spotlight in this adult series.
Velma Season 2 is now streaming in full on Max.
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