HBO Max has finally unveiled its latest project starring Mindy Kaling at this year’s New York Comic Con, and as always, the internet had something to say.
Based on the classic “Scooby-Doo” franchise, which follows the antics and adventures of a mystery-solving gang, including characters Daphne, Velma, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, the crew is back together with a new look.
Since the 1969 debut of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” on CBS, the franchise and its characters have undergone many different updates and adaptations. Originally featuring a cast of all-white characters voiced by all-white actors, “Scooby-Doo” was not your modern-day model of representation. Since then, the show has traveled from TV to the big screen to animation and live-action remakes. It has even made changes to characters’ sexualities and identities.
James Gunn, who wrote the early live-action films has wanted to dive deeper into the sexual orientation of Velma for quite some time now. In 2020, Gunn tweeted that he tried to make Velma a lesbian in previous live-action movies. “In 2001, Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” he wrote. “But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).”
Finally, in the 2022 release of “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!” directed by Audie Harrison, Velma expresses a love interest in the newest character, Coco Diablo, giving long-standing fans of the franchise a taste of what they’ve been hoping for all these years.
HBO Max’s spinoff show, “Velma,” takes a completely different approach to this original “made for kids” animation. Led by Executive Producers Mindy Kaling, Charlie Grandy, Howard Klein and Sam Register, the new series is described as an adult animated comedy series telling the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the original brains of the classic “Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc.” gang.
Mindy Kaling’s “Velma” has made headlines for more than one change regarding the direction of the upcoming show. For example, “Velma” will not include Scooby. Grandy admitted that the character was considered, but the ultimate decision was to eliminate his appearance. The absence of Scooby allows the show “that much more of an adult take on the characters,” Grandy said.
“Velma” will also bring forth more diverse designs, changing most ethnicities of the main characters.
Velma, who’s being voiced by Mindy Kaling, will be of South Asian descent. Daphne, who’s voiced by Constance Wu, will be of Asian descent. Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, who’s voiced by Sam Richardson, is now Black. Fred will remain white and will be voiced by Glenn Howerton.
“No one’s imagination ever had a problem with a talking dog solving mysteries,” Kaling told Seth Meyers. “So I think we can handle a brown Velma. When it was announced that I was going to do the voice of Velma, people were very supportive and happy on Twitter. And so I felt great. Then it was announced a month ago that the Velma’s character would be reimagined as South Asian, and people were not happy.”
While Twitter users were quick to make racist comments about the new show, others also shared concerns that the characters and their assigned stereotypes were far from progressive for the representation of people of color.
American sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen stated that side characters have the potential to fall into that trap if they’re one-dimensional.
“I grew up with ‘Scooby-Doo’ and Velma, and for sure, I could really see her as East Asian,” Yuen said. “Hopefully not in a model minority way but a quirky way that’s kind of bookish, but she’s multifaceted. The fact that she could be nerdy, that was kind of revolutionary back then.”
Yuen said she hopes Kaling’s team doesn’t just slap an Asian face onto the character but instead develops a backstory that’s in line with her racial and cultural identity. She feels there is a need for original Asian American stories besides the reimagination of already-created ones.
“It’s lazy for Hollywood just to try to use old material and try to freshen it up when they could actually create true freshness by centering people of color, centering BIPOC stories rather than just trying to revamp old stories,” she said. “As someone who was an Asian American female nerd, a person who was geeky and nerdy but into fashion and all sorts of stuff, I hope she can embody so much more than the nerd.”