Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! confirms a long-circulating rumor about Velma’s sexuality.
Scenes from the new Halloween-themed animated movie acknowledge that Velma is part of the LGBTQ community. Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! won’t debut on HBO Max until October 16th, but snippets from the movie overtly showing Velma’s queerness have begun to surface on Twitter since the film hit the on-demand rental/sale market on Tuesday.
Velma in Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!
In one of the scenes from the movie, Velma is visibly smitten with a new female character.
“I always thought it was a strange coincidence that all our cases seem to involve some supernatural creature,” says Daphne (voiced by Grey Griffin). To which Velma (Kate Micucci) responds, “But it wasn’t a coincidence — these costumes were created by one person.”
Then comes Coco Diablo (Myrna Velasco), the head of the infamous costume crime syndicate that creates the creepy costumes. As Coco confidently tosses her long white hair, Velma mentally surveys her physical appearance and her workplace, noting that she has “incredible glasses,” “amazing turtleneck,” and is “obviously brilliant” and “loves animals.” This cuts to a shot of Velma’s glasses fogging up and her blushing.
Velma first meets Coco Diablo in “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo”#Scoobydoohistory pic.twitter.com/TnWGS0B5GK
— Scooby-Doo History (@scoobyhistory) October 4, 2022
The Mystery Incorporated gang later enlists Coco to help them solve their cases, and when she puts her hand on Velma’s shoulder, this happens:
#Scoobydoohistory pic.twitter.com/9zW8vrb9Wb
— Scooby-Doo History (@scoobyhistory) October 4, 2022
Though this is the first time Velma is overtly presented as gay on screen, the Scooby-Doo live-action films written by James Gunn and the animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated had actually hinted at the character’s queerness several years before.
Velma in James Gunn’s Scooby-Doo live-action movies
Gunn, who wrote 2002’s Scooby-Doo and its 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, tweeted last month that his first Scooby-Doo film was originally rated by the MPAA as R, but after a “bunch of stuff was changed,” it got a PG rating.
One of the storylines that were edited out was Velma’s queer relationship. According to IndieWire, Gunn previously confirmed on Twitter that he “tried” to show Velma as a lesbian in his Scooby-Doo live-action movies, starring Linda Cardellini as the beloved character.
“In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” Gunn tweeted in 2020. “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).”
Velma in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
During 2020’s Pride Month, Tony Cervone, the supervising producer for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated revealed that Velma was not bisexual but gay in the critically acclaimed animated series. This explains the character’s awkward interactions while dating Shaggy in the series, which ran from 2010 to 2013.
“I’ve said this before, but Velma in ‘Mystery Incorporated’ is not bi. She’s gay,” Cervone wrote at that time. “We always planned on Velma acting a little off and out of character when she was dating Shaggy because that relationship was wrong for her and she had unspoken difficulty with the why. 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. 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.”
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After Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, Velma will be next seen in Mindy Kaling’s upcoming adult animated series Velma. “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” Kaling said during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront earlier this year. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”
Check out the trailer for Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! below:
