While fans have known it for years, the latest Scooby-Doo! film confirms that Velma – our favorite brainy detective and sweater girl – likes girls… And Google has tagged along in the celebration!
In the past, James Gunn, who wrote the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo! film and Tony Carvone, who produced Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, have received pushback for wanting to depict the character as queer, but they seemingly paved the way for Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! to do exactly that. In the new film, which premiered on VOD services like Prime Video on October 4, 2022 (and will be landing on HBO Max on October 14), Velma turns into a hot, gay mess upon the arrival of reformed villain and costume designer Coco Diablo.
Fans hit social media to spread the news – one fan wrote, “I never thought I’d live to see the day when Velma is very clearly having gay thoughts,” and other added, “the lesbian Velma agenda has always been so real”. This has led right-leaning outlets like Fox News and Newsmax to fume over “Scooby-Doo going woke,” but Google has proven itself to be a true ally by adding a colorful animation to all “Velma” searches.
Google Celebrates “Velma” With Rainbow Animation
Google’s new animation for Velma is not only gay… it’s very gay. Those who Google “Velma” – and just the world “Velma”, other inquiries like “Velma Lesbian” doesn’t work – will be met with an animation featuring rainbow confetti, the intersectional pride flag, and the lesbian pride flag. Twitter users discovered this last night, with one tweeting, “search Velma on Google.”
Another shared a video of the animation and wrote, “Google pays tribute to Scooby Doo!’s Velma coming out as a lesbian with a fun animation. A Google search of “Velma” gives you this…”
While the film creators haven’t commented on Google’s new feature, they did respond to NPR’s inquiry about bringing Velma’s queerness to the small screen. Director Audie Harrison said, “It honestly did not occur to [me] that we were doing something so groundbreaking until right now. While writing and directing this, I just set out to have fun with the comedy of an awkward teenage crush.”
He continued, “I actually thought it was a bigger deal for Velma’s character that she is in love with the villain of the movie. The fact that she is a girl is just… well, a fact. That being said, it does feel great to be a part of normalizing representation, especially with such a well-known franchise like Scooby-Doo!”
Hayley Kiyoko, who portrayed Velma in 2009’s Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, also shared her thoughts. She wrote via her Instagram story, “I booked Velma in 2008. It was my first big role in a movie, but I specifically remember thinking to myself, ‘I wonder if they know they hired a lesbian as Velma’ and here we are 14 years later!”
Will Mindy Kaling’s New Velma Series Be Queer?
Trailing right behind the recent Halloween special is Mindy Kaling’s upcoming Velma series for HBO Max, which falls in the adult animation genre – meaning there’s tons of room to further explore Velma’s sexuality. But will she do it? Short answer is: We don’t know.
However, Kaling has teased that this series will highlight Velma’s “big character energy” and will be subversive in other ways, such as depicting the character (voiced by Kaling) as being of South Asian descent. Kaling also has a track record of being supportive of queer representation and features lesbian storylines in her Netflix comedy Never Have I Ever.
In response to racist backlash, Kaling addressed the haters on Late Night with Seth Meyers and said that it encouraged her to be “careful” with the character. She said, “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 made me think, ‘Okay, we’ve got to be really careful with this character,’ which we will be because we love her and she’s going to have great adventures.”
We aren’t the first ones to wonder this, as before Velma’s fall coming out, in a February 2021 article, Out asked, “Will the new show let Velma be gay?” and compared Velma’s potential to HBO Max’s Harley Quinn, which portrays its title character in a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy. The outlet reached out to HBO Max for comment and they said they have no “details on the show and characters yet.”
Flash-forward to now, Kaling has remained uncharacteristically quiet on social media regarding the trending topic, and instead shared her show’s new (surprisingly gory!!!) poster.
Chances are, it’s something that will pop up when Velma has its New York Comic Con panel later today, at 3:30pm ET. But lesbian or not, Kaling’s new show will presumably continue to take risks with this legacy character – further proving that it’s Velma’s world, we’re just living in it.