First Images Show Mindy Kaling’s ‘Velma’ Animated Series Is an Adult Spin on Scooby-Doo
Jinkies!
At the 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront, HBO Max announced the beginning of several series and updates to upcoming shows they’ve been very tight-lipped about for months. One of the most anticipated for many fans of Scooby-Doo features writer and actress Mindy Kaling coming on to play Velma Dinkley of Mystery, Inc. In addition to starring, Kaling is co-producing this 10-episode order with Charlie Grandy, Howard Klein, and Sam Register. Today we got the first look, and it looks very familiar.
For those that don’t watch anything DC or on HBO Max, this show appears to be in the style and tone of Harley Quinn: The Animated Series. We have a decapitated head on the floor of a shower room and a group of almost nude women—one of whom might be Daphne. It’s exciting to see them do something more mature, but also, I hope it doesn’t lean too far into edgy humor like Harley Quinn. While that works (most of the time) for Harley Quinn, with Velma or a Scooby-Doo, I’d prefer for anything veering into TV-14 and TVMA to serve the story and not just be wacky and shock value.
According to Variety, Suzanna Makkos, executive vice president of original comedy and adult animation for HBO Max, spoke to the long legacy of Warner Brothers animation and how the expansion of their adult animation was a continuation of that. She continued, “We are proud to introduce this distinctive group of series from a wide range of diverse creators that will form a first stop destination for animation lovers everywhere.”
Kaling addresses some of the initial backlash
Since the initial news came last year that Mindy Kaling would play Velma, the reactions have varied considerably. On the one hand, the same old upset people are mad that a person of color is playing a traditionally white character. This is despite various Asian and Latin women playing the character in both live-action (Hayley Kiyoko in 2009’s Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins) and animation (Gina Rodriguez in 2020’s Scoob!). Kaling addressed this criticism a little bit more cautiously last year on Late Night with Seth Meyers. However, today, at the reveal, she made it very clear how she felt about this kind of critique: “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian. If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”
Among the most positive cheers was a looming concern that an Asian Velma would play into the Model Minority Myth. Created by white politicians and media in the ’60s, this myth worked to pit the success of some Asian Americans against other people of color, particularly Black people. Not only does this flatten all Asian experiences and used to justify anti-Black policies, but it contributes to the under-diagnoses of mental health-related issues. Despite this debunked myth being cleared up for decades, popular media hasn’t quite caught up. I’m hoping, like many others, that Kaling and the writing team can subvert this trope, if not outright address it within the show.
(via Twitter, image: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)
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