Scooby-Doo, where are you?
On Thursday, it was revealed that “Velma”, Mindy Kaling’s upcoming entry into the long-running animated franchise, will reimagine the classic character as a girl of East Asian descent.
The news was revealed by WarnerMedia exec Tom Ascheim during a keynote address at the TV Kids Summer Festival.
Mindy Kaling's 'VELMA' series will reimagine the character as having East Asian descent and living in a different world.
Source: https://t.co/OA4DIlnVxB pic.twitter.com/4kQU9VKhwi
— Cartoon Crave (@thecartooncrave) June 8, 2021
Ascheim also revealed that along with the change in the character’s ethnicity, the new series will not feature Scooby-Doo himself or the iconic Mystery Machine van.
“There’s no dog, and there’s no van, but we have our four key characters through a different lens. And I think it’s great. So allowing our creators to play with our IP is super powerful,” the exec said.
The four returning characters include the original Mystery Inc. foursome, Velma Dinkley, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake and Shaggy Rogers.
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Many fans were supportive of the change to the main character.
There is no single way to Velma. pic.twitter.com/cYqZLctKnT
— ᴀʜᴍᴀᴅ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇss (@AhmadChildress) June 10, 2021
Velma has been Asian before (portrayed by Hayley Kiyoko) and it was one of my favorite interpretations of her tbh, people really out here getting mad about such a blank-slate character. https://t.co/jDK8E2WsQR pic.twitter.com/QffDnVfU3e
— Nipah 🐣 (@NipahDUBS) June 10, 2021
Velma is trending because of the new imagining of her design and I'm down for more POC in our old school series.
And also, I cosplayed Velma too… Because I cosplay just about everything. 🤣💗 pic.twitter.com/8r0PPajqY9— ✨ Midnite Kitten ✨ (@MidnightPursona) June 10, 2021
