SNAPSHOT
Velma is an adult animated comedy series telling the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the unsung and under appreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang. This original and humorous spin unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of America’s most beloved mystery solvers. (official synopsis via Collider)
Much as we love Shaggy and Scooby-Doo mugging it for the cameras and spending their lives in pursuit of laden buffets and Scooby snacks, and seeing Daphne and Fred putting their deductive reasoning skills to good use, it’s really Velma who is the brains behind Mystery Inc.
Now confirmed to be gay, thanks to a promo clip for the Halloween treat, Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, Velma is the one who, Poirot-like, puts all the clues together in one damning chain, promoting full acquiescence by the by-then unmasked villain who’s prompting rueful reference to “those meddling kids”.
Given her role as the lynchpin of the gang, it’s high time that Velma got her own moment to shine, which is happened in the Mindy Kaling / Charlie Grandy co-created series Velma, which, as the trailer suggests, will be a whole lot more grown-up than the Scooby-Doo episodes we know and love.
The trailer shows Velma, voiced by Kaling herself, is full meta mode, making a complaint to HBO Max about how woke they are, a satirical play on the tendency of a small number of toxic fans of any one franchise to demand nothing ever changes to their beloved show and characters.
Given that Velma is going to upend massively the tried-and-true Scooby-Doo dynamic (thought not without some reference to the gang), it’s a fun way of heading off the toxic trolls before they get to you while establishing Velma as someone more fully-rounded than the character we already think we know.
Honestly as a Scooby-Doo fan of long-standing, I’m excited to see where this will take the franchise and the amazingly interesting stories it will open up. Bring it on!
Velma is due for release in 2023 on HBO Max.