Mario Abner Colina/Reform Agency
Monday, January 09, 2023 | 07:03
Mexico City.- When Mindy Kaling (The Office) was a child watching reruns of Scooby-Doo on television, she thought it was hard to identify with any character.
Of course, she didn’t feel close to Daphne, the beautiful, fashion-loving redhead who is in a relationship with another gang member, the naive and egotistical Fred.
There was one other girl, however, that Kaling liked very much: Velma, in glasses and a baggy orange sweater, whose greatest strength is her intelligence, a skeptic who believed that not all mystery stemmed from the supernatural.
“I loved that she wasn’t the spectacular beauty, but that she was helping the gang with her brains,” recalled the actress and writer.
This Thursday, HBO Max will debut Velma, an adult animated series, produced and voiced by Kaling as the title character, that will explore the origins of Velma, Daphne, Fred and Shaggy in their high school days.
“We took the characters, the clothes, the iconic scenes, and we gave them origin stories, a meaning,” said comedian Charly Grandy (Saturday Night Live), the project’s showrunner.
“For me, one of the biggest Scooby-Doo mysteries is how these four people get together and make a gang, what triggers it all. We told it.”
The 10-episode production will have a twist: Velma’s racial origin will change and now the girl will be an American of Indian origin, a cultural mix.
“Velma being white…never made sense to me. I always thought so. Except for Fred, of course that boy is a white man!” mused Kaling, whose parents were born in India.
Her sexuality, which has always raised suspicions among fans, will also be addressed: Velma is attracted to girls.
“It’s great to be able to tell these stories about Velma that have been talked about forever. We don’t want to give big spoilers, but let’s just say it will see her self-discovery,” Grandy explained.
If Velma is sold as an adult series it is because it deals with murder and has a lot of blood, but also because the gang will discover how terrifying adolescence can be.
The episodes, Kaling mentioned, will touch on various topics, including discrimination, bullying and depression.
“In the original series, every week the gang was harassed by what appeared to be monsters, but were actually criminals. It seemed like their lives were in danger every episode and they kept taking chances and getting no money in return!
“What happened to them in high school that was so bad that it made them want to do that? That’s what our series is about,” Grandy completed.
