Velma, the adult Scooby-Doo cartoon created by Mindy Kaling, had its cast announced on Thursday at New York Comic Con. Velma’s character was recently confirmed to be a lesbian and was all over the news last week for melting over a costume designer in Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! Now the shy, bookish girl with the oversized orange sweater is getting even more love as Velma gets her own series. Mindy Kaling made the official cast announcement at her panel at NYCC, and it is full of stars.
Velma was announced back in May when Mindy Kaling revealed the cartoon was not meant for children. Our first look at the show had someone have the top of their head cleaved off. But this adult animation spin-off of Scooby-Doo will come with talent that can handle a bit more danger. Velma’s cast will have a lot of familiar names from shows that kids who grew up with Scooby-Doo will recognize, and a few more actors who are a delight to see break out onto the scene. Kaling will play the brains of Mystery Inc. as we follow Velma to discover her origins in this long-awaited HBO MAX Scooby-Doo series. And the rest of the cast of Velma is a mystery no longer.
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Velma’s Voice Cast
Netflix / Warner Bros. Pictures / FX
During Velma’s Thursday panel at New York Comic Con, Kaling revealed that the voice cast will have Sam Richardson as Shaggy, Constance Wu as Daphne, and Glenn Howerton as Fred. Sam Richardson, who voiced Doctor Champ on BoJack Horseman and Swamp Thing on Harley Quinn, certainly has the talent for voice acting. And with his recent appearance in Hocus Pocus 2, he should be ready for anything spooky to jump out from around the corner.
We all know Constance Wu from her role as Rachel Chu in Crazy Rich Asians. The change Rachel Chu goes through in the movie, learning what high society is like, may inform some of Wu’s performance playing Daphne, who is often portrayed as a ditzy, privileged cheerleader. Glenn Howerton is the perfect person to play Fred. His character on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dennis, has the over-inflated ego every Fred should have. Dennis’s constant focus on his physical appearance should play hilariously in Fred in this Scooby-Doo series.
Mindy Kaling also secured some pretty amazing talent for the rest of the voice cast, though we don’t know any of their roles yet (they’re probably all the villains). The legendary “Weird Al” Yankovic, who was just in the news for his biopic at TIFF. Jane Lynch is a hilarious stand-up comedian known for her work on Glee. Ming-Na Wen was the voice of Mulan back in 1998; more recently, she was Fennec Shand in The Book of Boba Fett. Wanda Sykes is also a legendary stand-up comedian and is Daphne Lido on Black-ish.
Stephen Root was Milton on Office Space and played Bill Dauterive on King of the Hill in the ’90s. Melissa Fumero was Amy Santiago on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Nicole Byer is a fantastic comedian and does voices on both Tuca & Bertie and Bob’s Burgers. Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars will be on the show, as well as the 2015 first-round draft pick for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Townes.
The series has also snagged Frank Welker. A long-time voice actor for the dog himself, Welker has been with the franchise since its creation and served as the original voice for Fred back in 1969. Other notable voices include stand-up comedian Russell Peters, Gary Cole (Office Space), Ken Leung (The Force Awakens), Cherry Jones (The Village), stand-up comedian Fortune Feimster, Yvonne Orji (Insecure), Sarayu Blue (Never Have I Ever), Debby Ryan (The Suite Life on Deck), and Kulap Vilaysak (The Office).
Why the Controversy?
HBO Max
Velma has made headlines for a few reasons recently. People cheered that the character was officially written as a lesbian in Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! Fans had imagined the character this way for a long time. People pointed at signs of Velma’s quick dismissal of men throughout the franchise and saw little hints that she might have a crush on certain women. James Gunn’s original Scooby-Doo script had an explicitly gay Velma until feedback from producers slowly toned her down and gave her a boyfriend.
Mindy Kaling also took some flak from viewers after our first look at her now-controversial HBO Max series. She had changed Velma from a white character to one who was South Asian. In responding to the racebending backlash, she was famously quoted as saying, “Hopefully, you noticed my Velma is South Asian. If people freak out about that, I don’t care.” And so, she quickly shut down the argument before it began.
Naturally, people never stop talking on the internet, but Kaling’s defense continues in Velma’s teaser trailer, which pokes fun at the race-swapping criticism. It seems almost overnight, Velma has become a hero for marginalized groups.