There's a new Velma in town, and her name is Mindy Kaling. At the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation on Wednesday, Kaling appeared on stage to address Velma, an animated Scooby-Doo reboot series. Kaling touched on the social media backlash the series had created with some Scooby-Doo fans complaining about the change in skin color for Velma, a traditionally white character."Hopefully, you noticed my Velma is South Asian," Kaling said, per Deadline. "If people freak out about that, I don't care."Kaling also revealed a first look image of Velma, and this is not your average Scooby-Doo cartoon. It would appear that Kaling has followed through with the promise that this reboot will be for adults, as the photo reveals a murder victim who's seemingly had her brains removed. Kaling's South Asian Velma stands front and center as a group of terrified women, one completely nude, stand behind her.
Scooby-Doo Has Reimagined Velma Many Times Over the Decades
Mindy Kaling's Velma was first announced in February 2021. The series serves as an origin story for Velma with Kaling executive producing in addition to voicing the titular sleuth. Charlie Grandy, Howard Klein, and Sam Register are also executive producing.
While there were a lot of social media complaints about the changes for Velma with the new Velma series, it's nothing new to see a reimagined version of the classic character. In both live-action and animation, there have been a wide variety of different takes on Velma, though Kaling will be the first to introduce a South Asian incarnation. Despite the change in skin color, Kaling's Velma also looks very recognizable as the character Scooby-Doo fans know and love from her trademark spectacles to her love for orange clothing.
Kaling previously spoke about the backlash during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. She said that fans appeared to be fully on board with her reboot until it was revealed that this Velma would just happen to be of South Asian descent. That's when she noticed a big change in the fan reception, as people were voicing their complaints all over social media.
"When it was announced that I was going to do the voice of Velma, people were very supportive and happy on Twitter," Kaling explained. "So, I felt great, because these are really intense fans, you know? And especially [for] a legacy show like this. So it's like, 'Oh, this is great!'"
She added, "Then, it was announced about a month ago that the Velma character would be reimagined as South Asian. And people were not happy. There was a lot of, like, 'So not Velma!' Those kinds of tweets. 'Not the classic Velma that I'm always thinking about!' I just really didn't know that she elicited such strong reactions, in either direction."
"She's such a great character, she's so smart, and I just couldn't understand how people couldn't imagine a really smart nerdy girl with terrible eyesight who loved to solve mysteries could not be Indian," Kaling went on to note. "Like, there are Indian nerds. It shouldn't be a surprise to people, but people are like, 'No, no, no.' By the way, this is a small percentage of people, but it really made me think, 'Okay, we've got to be really careful with this character.' Which we will be, because we love her, and we'll have great adventures."
Velma doesn't yet have an official premiere date set for HBO Max.