The Adult-Oriented Cartoon Reimagines the Character As A South Asian Teen Detective
Mindi Kaling gave us our first look at the HBO Max cartoon “Velma” on Wednesday, and this is not your parent’s “Scooby Doo.” For starters, the Great Dane is nowhere to be found. Only the human members of Mystery Inc. will be in the series. And unlike the ensemble efforts of previous shows, this series has a clear single protagonist: Velma Dinkly, voiced by Kaling herself. And critically, they are not shying away from blood and guts and other adult issues.
The show has met with some backlash from fans who were concerned about the ethnicity of the cartoon crime fighter, but Kaling had little time for the complainers. “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” she said. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care. [If a dog can solve crimes,] so can a brown person.”
HBO Max sent the show straight to series, ordering 10 episodes of the comedy for the first season.
VELMA is an adult animated comedy series telling the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the unsung and underappreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang. An original and humorous spin that unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of America’s most beloved mystery solvers, executive producer Mindy Kaling will voice the titular character. Charlie Grandy, Howard Klein and Sam Register also serve as executive producers. VELMA is produced by Warner Bros. Animation.