From one Shaggy to another, Sam Richardson was thrilled to have Matthew Lillard in his corner for his casting in the new series Velma. Now streaming its first two episodes on HBO Max, Velma reimagines the four members of Mystery Inc. with Mindy Kaling as a South Asian incarnation of the titular brainiac. The cast also includes Sam Richardson as Norville, a Black take on Shaggy, alongside Constance Wu as an East Asian version of Daphne. Fred Jones, voiced by Glenn Howerton, is the only one of the foursome who wasn’t reimagined as a person of color for Velma.

On social media, there has been some criticism over the race-swapping of the aforementioned Scooby-Doo characters. But while some people online were crying foul, others chose to look at the new take on Scooby-Doo from a different perspective. Noticing the fan complaints over Richardson’s casting as Norville, Lillard posted a message on Twitter declaring that the actor would be great in the role. In a new interview with TheWrap, Richardson referred to that moment as a “big deal” and explained why he was touched by Lillard offering that endorsement.

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Richardson also agrees that the endorsement meant more, considering that Lillard was much more skeptical about Will Forte taking over the role of Shaggy for the animated movie Scoob!. When the casting for that film was announced, Lillard expressed his disappointment that it wasn’t him, figuring that it meant his run in the role was over. However, the actor has since voiced Shaggy in new projects, such as the video game MultiVersus.

“He’s such a cool dude. When they announced the breakdown of the characters, a lot of people, believe it or not, had a problem with there being a Black Shaggy. But really they’d probably be like, why aren’t the old voices the same? But they’re different. We’re different. It’s all different. Matthew Lillard said, “Oh, he’ll be a great Shaggy.” He tweeted it out. It was really nice. He didn’t have to do that. But I really appreciate it.”

Velma Has Arrived on HBO Max

     HBO Max

Velma has had a bit of a rocky start, as its reviews for the first two episodes are on the negative side. It’s hard to say how much of that comes from review-bombing, as there had been so much criticism about the casting and other elements of Velma ahead of its premiere that a certain level of that had to be expected. However, Velma had the biggest opening day for an original animated series on HBO Max, so the show is drawing in a lot of viewers.

The first two episodes of Velma are now streaming on HBO Max.