American actress and producer Mindy Kaling will voice Velma, the bookworm Scooby-Doo character in the HBO Max series named after the character.
The trailer begins with Velma typing on her phone a message to HBO Max about something related to Judy Jetson, and then, we get the reveal of the new Velma, who happens to be a cartoon character of color. “Well, at least Judy’s still white,” she quips un-self-consciously.
The official synopsis for the show reads, “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.”
The Mystery Before the Inc. Catch the #VelmaTheSeries Panel at @NY_Comic_Con tomorrow and pull the mask off this killer new take. pic.twitter.com/KT9VxBY25t
— HBO Max (@hbomax) October 5, 2022
In February 2021, HBO Max green-lit a straight-to-series order to ‘Velma’ starring Kaling as the titular voice. The series re-imagines Velma Dinkley as being of South Asian descent.
“Getting to voice this iconic character in her first-ever origin story is a dream come true… And also, you’ve hopefully noticed by now my Velma is South Asian. And if people freak out about that, I don’t care. No one’s imagination ever had a problem with a talking dog solving mysteries. So a brown Velma is fine, and I think we can all handle it. In any case, you won’t want to miss this..,” Kaling said.
Velma will stream on HBO Max without a premiere date.
