Mindy Kaling shared the first shot from the new Scooby-Doo spin-off titled Velma . The animation will be directed at adults, which is confirmed by the shared picture – we see the title character over a dead body of a woman, with the skull cut in half and the brain removed. Velma is surrounded by a group of naked girls, one of them most likely Daphne.
In the Tweet below is the first Velma shot :
It is easy to guess that the biggest controversy was not caused by the fact that the animation will be aimed exclusively at adult viewers, but by the new appearance of the main character. The young Mrs. Detective has darker skin than in previous versions, which resulted in numerous discussions on the Internet. Mindy Kaling referred to the comments of Internet users:
Hope you noticed that my Velma is from South Asia. If people get angry about it, I don’t care.
The actress also added that if the famous cartoon dog can talk, her version of Velma may have a darker skin color. As criticism persisted, she returned to the subject last year in Late Night with Seth Meyers :
When it was announced that I would be the voice of Velma, everyone was very supportive and happy on Twitter. So I felt great because they were really committed animation fans. Especially since this is a cult production … Then people were not happy. There were a lot of voices like “So there will be no Velma?” or “It won’t be the classic Velma I’m thinking of?” First, I didn’t know it would trigger such strong reactions in any direction. I just couldn’t understand why people couldn’t imagine a very smart, “nerdy” girl with tragic eyesight who loves to solve puzzles and who is also Indian. There are nerds from India. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to people, but they’re on the go anyway. It made me think, “Okay, we should be really careful with this character,” and we will,
Previously, we saw Linda Cardellini ( Hawkeye ) as Velma, but also Hayley Kiyoko who is half Japanese. The actress has only appeared in two productions, Scooby-Doo: Scarecrow and Scooby-Doo: The Curse of the Lake Monster , but that means we’ve got Velma with Asian origins before.
Certainly, the topic will not disappear quickly, because discussions about whether the appearance of heroes who have been in pop culture for years can be modified in this way are often very complex and the opinions are diverse. Velma will soon make her debut on HBO Max.