This story originally appeared on PRIDE's sister website, Out.
My glasses! I can’t see if she’s a lesbian without my glasses!
This week, HBO Max has announced that they’re making a brand new Velma series following our favorite mystery-solving nerd of Scooby-Doo fame. Of course, this has us all wondering, will the new show let Velma be gay?
The show, titled Velma, will “delve into the origin story of the beloved animated sleuth and member of the Mystery Inc. gang,” according to Variety. Mindy Kaling is set to executive produce, and star as Velma in the show, which was given a 10-episode order.
Velma Dinkley has always been a gay icon and is a classic Halloween costume for any queer woman who wears glasses (including me). While she wasn’t confirmed by anyone making Scooby-Doo as queer until recently, she was played by singer Hayley Kiyoko, also known as “Lesbian Jesus” in two live-action movies in 2009 and 2010.
Last year, however, two of the people behind various Scooby related projects, Mystery Incorporated producer Tony Cervone, and live-action Scooby-Doo script writer James Gunn, confirmed that they intended Velma to be gay in their versions.
During Pride month, Cervone posted a picture of Velma and Marcie, another character from Mystery Inc., in front of a rainbow background with the word “Pride” on it. “I obviously don’t represent every version of Velma Dinkley, but I am one of the key people that represents this one,” he wrote in the post. “We made our intentions as clear as we could ten years ago. Most of our fans got it. To those who didn’t, I suggest you look closer.”
When one fan complained about the idea of Velma being gay, saying she clearly liked Shaggy in the series, Cervone became direct: “I’ve said this before, but Velma in Mystery Incorporated is not bi. She’s gay. We always planned on Velma acting a little off and out of character while she was dating Shaggy because that relationship was wrong for her and she had unspoken difficulty with the why,” he responded.
“There are hints about the why in that episode with the mermaid, and if you follow the entire Marcie arc, it seems as clear as we could make it 10 years ago,” he continued.“I don’t think Marcie and Velma had time to act on their feelings during the main timeline, but post reset, they are a couple. You can not like it, but this was our intention.”
Gunn, who wrote the script for the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo, said that he tried to make Velma a lesbian. “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” he said, “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)."
As the show is going to be on HBO Max, it could follow in the footsteps of Harley Quinn, who had been subtextually bisexual in previous animated appearances, but finally got into a relationship with Poison Ivy on her animated show that started on DC Universe, but moved to HBO Max.
Out reached out to HBO Max for comment and they said they have no "details on the show and characters yet," leaving us all in sapphic suspense.
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