The details of HBO Max’s upcoming animated series Velma are a mystery, but the trailer might just give us a clue. Velma, premiering on January 12, reintroduces the titular mystery-solver, voiced by Mindy Kaling. The series was first revealed in October 2022, when Velma news was coming in from all sides. The new movie Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! confirmed what was already accepted as canonical knowledge: The brains of the mystery machine is a lesbian. In comes Mindy Kaling two days later with a press release and a New York Comic Con sneak peek at the trailer for an HBO Max animated Velma origin story of the same name. Velma follows “the unsung and under-appreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang†as she brings together Shaggy, Fred, and Daphne for their very first mystery (though it doesn’t clarify whether or not Kaling’s Velma is a lesbian, too). “In this day and age, you can’t speculate about someone’s sexuality unless they’re famous, or Peppermint Patty,†she tells Shaggy, a.k.a. Norville (Sam Richardson), in the trailer.
Alongside Constance Wu as Daphne and Glenn Howerton as Fred is a big ol’ all-star cast … *deep breath* Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Ken Leung, Cherry Jones, Frank Welker, “Weird Al†Yankovic, Fortune Feimster, Yvonne Orji, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Byer, Ming-Na Wen, Shay Mitchell, Debby Ryan, Kulap Vilaysack, and Karl-Anthony Towns are all in it. Charlie Grandy serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Kaling, Howard Klein, and Sam Register. Just one last thing: We are contractually obligated to inform you that Scooby-Doo the dog will not appear in Velma.
This post has been updated.