Velma NYCC trailer, panel tease Mindy Kaling’s unhinged Scooby reboot

Scream “jinkies!” and put on the square glasses: From Warner Bros. Animation, VelmaThis animated comedy tells the story of Velma, the famous orange-turtlecked brains from Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. It is not family-friendly, but it’s still approachable. Scooby-Doo franchise, VelmaIt is a show geared towards adults (see poster featuring the blood-splattered spectacles), Rick and Morty Harley QuinnThese are cited as important inspirations.

Executive producer Mindy Kaling, who also voices Velma; showrunner Charlie Grandy; Constance Wu (Daphne); Sam Richardson (Norville, who will be known as “Shaggy”); and Glenn Howerton (Fred) joined fans at New York Comic Con 2022 to explain the new direction for the long-running horror comedy series. A screening of the pilot episode gave fans a glimpse at the new show.

Velma is a cute, bespectacled loser in the show’s high school days. If two cockroaches copulating in the opening scene doesn’t establish Velma’s tone, the next scene should do the trick: nude teenage girls partaking in physical violence in the gym showers (all while debating the ethical appropriateness and exploitation of blatant nudity in media). Later, the corpse of a teenager is found in Velma’s locker, making her the prime suspect in the eyes of two cops (Wanda Sykes and Jane Lynch). She must solve the mystery in order to get her life back on track. One problem: Velma hasn’t really solved a mystery in a while, not since her mystery novelist mother vanished from her life. Velma gets harassed every time she attempts to solve a mystery by terrifying zombie-like spirits.

Image Credit: Max

The preview shows the Mystery Inc. crew in high school. Popular girl Daphne is the antithesis of Velma; she’s a cartoon mean girl, and is also the most pop culture-savvy of the bunch, said Grandy. Kaling added, “Daphne has her own mysteries about her own life.”

Daphne and Velma start the series as childhood close friends. When developing the series, Kaling (who also co-created Netflix’s teen-centric Never Have You Ever) brought her love for high school shows that explored “people from different social strata find[ing] something in common.” Velma is a high school show, “so we get to see all the high school events and dances in addition to it being a murder mystery.”

Grandy said that no one associated with HBO Max and the Scooby franchises resisted the gorier, racier direction they wanted with the legendary mystery gang. He affirmed Warner Bros.’ support: “They said, ‘Great, go have fun.’”

What is the greatest revelation? This is the biggest revelation VelmaPilot does not make any reference to Norville being a dog-owner. Consider: Gotham and the conspicuous absence Batman. Grandy explained to the Great Dane, a brown-spotted Great Dane not present in the meeting that the team had thought long and hard about how it could distinguish the two. Velmaas an adult program. “What made Scooby-Doo a kid show is Scooby-Doo,” Grandy said. “We couldn’tHave your say […] [our efforts]Warner Bros. Animation saying we can’t use the dog.” For Grandy, the omission of the iconic Great Dane accentuates the adult tone of Velma — though who knows what will happen along the show’s serialized journey.

From the original Scooby-Doo!Velma, along with her gang, debuted on CBS in 1969. They have seen many iterations of cartoons, live-action movies, and video games. Velma’s latest direct-video animated film (finally!) confirmed that she is capable of homosexual crushing.

The recent depiction of Velma’s gay identity (after decades of ambiguity and James Gunn’s failed attempt at confirming her sexuality) seemed to have been in the moderator’s mind when he asked, “Is there a Velma and Daphne moment?” insinuating romantic shipping and rousing the crowd to cheers.

Kaling replied, “[Velma]remains unresolved in regards to sexual tension a lot of characters.” Her Velma does get really face-to-face close with Daphne at one point in the pilot, and she does find the arrogant Fred annoyingly hot. “We were drawn to this journey of self-discovery for her,” Kaling said. “We wanted to honor the other interpretations and do what’s modern.”

Images by Max

High school Velma’s only friend is Shaggy — proper name Norville — who’s shown to be more mellow. Shaggy “definitely doesn’t like drugs,” he says in the pilot. His “joke-telling” — actually just him sincerely admitting his crush on Velma — plays a role in saving the mystery-solving heroine later in the pilot. So how does Shaggy grow into a “burnout” later in the canon? Grandy promised, “You will see the evolution of the character.”

Velma’s creators reimagined the character as being of South Asian descent, like Kaling, because “most Indian American [women]They can relate to a hardworking and skeptical character when they see her. This show is for them.”

Daphne and Shaggy have also been reimagined as East Asian and Black, respectively, like their voice actors, because “no one on [Scooby-Doo] is defined by their whiteness,” said Kaling — “except Fred is extremely white.”

This made Howerton, an alumnus It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Kaling’s Mindy ProjectWith his tendency to play entitled white men, he was perfect for this role. He agreed, saying, “It’s similar to what me and my friends have done together as the extremely entitled white kid, like, Please, mom! I kinda expected [the voice direction]I will not be stopped.” But no one has stopped me.”

Moderator asked about the joy of being on-screen. What was the first time that they saw themselves in television? Wu answered — likely alluding to her role as Jessica Huang on Get Fresh Boats, the production of which has recently arisen as a topic of her revealing book — “I think I might have played her. First time I saw her, it might have been myself.” For Richardson, he saw himself in the Black Power Ranger.

We will continue to see if this is the case. Velma will explore its characters’ reworked ethnicities; the show seems to be prioritizing a mix of adult-friendly comedy and gratuitous violence that only animation could pull off. This is the first season. VelmaThe series, featuring Stephen Root and Weird Al Yankovic, will debut on HBO Max by 2023.