Does Scooby-Doo appear in HBO Max’s ‘Velma’ series?

People who absolutely adore watching mystery TV shows and movies are probably already excited about Velma. The adult animated comedy series premieres on HBO Max on January 12, 2023, focusing on none other than amateur sleuth Velma Dinkley, a member of the infamous Mystery Inc.

The character of Velma is voiced by Mindy Kaling, the hilarious comedian many people know and love from shows such as The Office and The Mindy Project. As the hype surrounding Velma reaches an all-time high, people have questions about whether or not an animated version of Scooby-Doo will be making an appearance.

Viewers who are hopeful about seeing Scooby-Doo getting pulled into silly shenanigans with the rest of his squad are in for a little bit of disappointment. Unfortunately, Scooby won’t be appearing in the show along with the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang. According to Game Rant, the new Velma show is a little too dark to include Scooby since he’s such a kid-friendly character.

Scooby has an innocence and playfulness about him that simply doesn’t fit into what the creators of Velma were trying to accomplish. During a New York Comic Con panel via Variety, the creators opened up about their decision to write Scooby out entirely. They explained, “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 like, ‘Isn’t it crazy we did that to Velma?'”

Keeping Scooby out of the show means that it can be thought of as a show geared at more mature audiences. The showrunners even took it as far as to forbid any expression of the name Scooby Doo in the show altogether.

Will there be another movie or show that includes Scooby-Doo?

Since Scooby isn’t part of Velma, it makes sense that people would be curious to know if the beloved character will show up in any future projects in animated or CGI form. According to Movie Web, a sequel to 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, starring real-life actors and actresses such as Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Junior, isn’t in the works.

Rumors about Scooby-Doo 3 made their rounds over the years, but it’s simply never going to happen. The reason why? The live-action sequel that premiered in 2004 (following the 2002 original) earned significantly less money at the box office than the first one did. But this doesn’t mean a future project including Scooby is off the table forever, there just isn’t any word on that just yet.