The upcoming film Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! appears to confirm fan speculation about Velma Dinkley’s interest in women.
HBO Max’s new movie was made available for purchase via digital platforms Tuesday, and footage from it has circulated widely on social media. A number of viral posts focus on fans’ elated responses to scenes showing the bespectacled sleuth, as voiced in the new movie by Kate Micucci, expressing interest in female character Coco Diablo, voiced by Myrna Velasco.
After Velma seems smitten upon meeting Coco, a fashion designer with a criminal past, Velma’s longtime friend and fellow detective Daphne (Grey Griffin) quips, “I didn’t know convicted felons were your type.”
This leads a flustered Velma to reply, “What? Type — me? Please. Who has time for a type? We have our work cut out for us, and I am focused like a laser on … OK, who am I kidding? I’m crushing big-time, Daphne! What do I do? What do I say?”
Another clip shows Daphne attempting to help Velma strike up a casual conversation with Coco by nudging her and saying, “Now’s your chance to talk to her.” Daphne later pulls Velma aside when it’s clear that Velma’s small-talk skills could use some polish.
Velma first debuted as a main character on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the animated series from Hanna-Barbera Productions that premiered in 1969. The character, a longtime favorite of the LGBTQ community, will be the focus of HBO Max’s upcoming animated series Velma, on which she will be voiced by executive producer Mindy Kaling.
After widespread fan speculation over the decades regarding whether Velma identifies as LGBTQ, Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated producer Tony Cervone wrote on social media in 2020 that the character was written as gay for the Cartoon Network series that signed off in April 2013 after two seasons. Cervone wrote that Velma and fellow character Marcie Fleach would have pursued romantic feelings for each other had the series’ run been extended.
In 2020, James Gunn, who is credited with writing the screenplay for 2002’s live-action Warner Bros. film Scooby-Doo that starred Linda Cardellini as Velma, tweeted that “Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script” but that studio intervention led to any sense of this being removed from the version of the movie that hit theaters. (His tweet has since been deleted.)
Seth Green played Patrick Wisely, the male love interest for Velma, in the film’s 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which Gunn also wrote.
Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, now available for on-demand purchase, starts streaming Oct. 15 on HBO Max.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Hollywood
