Velma Has a Much Deadlier Problem Than HBO Max in Official Teaser

We were hoping we were going to get a teaser for star & executive producer Mindy Kaling, Warner Bros. Animation & HBO Max’s ten-episode “Scooby-Doo” prequel spinoff Velma after the voice cast was announced earlier today. And thanks to New York Comic Con (NYCC), we weren’t disappointed. With Kaling voicing Velma Dinkley, the popular member of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang, the series is set to tell the origin story of the unsung & underappreciated brains of the group. Joining Kaling in the main voice cast is Sam Richardson as Shaggy, Constance Wu as Daphne, and Glenn Howerton as Fred.

In addition, Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Ming-Na Wen, Ken Leung, Cherry Jones, Frank Welker, Fortune Feimster, Yvonne Orji, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Byer, Shay Mitchell, Debby Ryan, Kulap Vilaysak, and Karl-Anthony Towns will also lend their voices. Kaling and showrunner Charlie Grandy will executive produce alongside Howard Klein and Sam Register.

Mindy Kaling Addresses Troll Backlash Against Velma

Back in May, Kaling addressed the initial trolling the series received by some on social media when it was announced that Velma would be reimagined as South Asian. Taking the stage to offer a look at a preview image from the animated series during Warner Bros Discovery’s Upfronts, Kaling made it pretty clear that she wasn’t wasting her time on those folks anymore. “Nobody ever complained about a talking dog solving mysteries, so I don’t think they’ll be upset over a brown Velma,” Kaling said in response to the topic. “Hopefully, you noticed my Velma is South Asian. If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”

Checking in with NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers back in July 2021, Kaling first addressed the pushback from gatekeepers online. “When it was announced that I was going to do the voice of Velma, people were very supportive and happy on Twitter. And so I felt great,” she explained. “Then it was announced 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 kind of tweets. ‘Not the classic Velma that I’m always thinking about.'”