Jinkies! A new trailer for Mindy Kaling‘s Velma is scaring up excitement for the series before it starts haunting HBO Max on January 12. Kaling’s Velma trailer previews subtle changes to the Scooby Gang, including replacing the pasty, food-loving Shaggy with Norville, Velma’s Black friend who dislikes drugs and harbors a not-so-secret crush on the show’s star character. The 10-episode series explores forward-thinking themes, new supernatural threats, a murder mystery, and Velma’s blossoming sexuality. That’s right, Velma’s attraction to women is canon now. Let’s go!
According to HBO Max, Velma will “[tell] the origin story of Velma Dinkley, the unsung and underappreciated brains of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang,” and the show is “an original and humorous spin that unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of America’s most beloved mystery solvers.”
“It is a tremendous privilege to build on the 100-year plus legacy of ‘cartoons’ at this company. We can draw a straight line from our hundreds of childhood hours spent watching Bugs outwit Elmer to the current slate of adult animated projects we are building here at HBO Max and we think fans will agree,” Suzanna Makkos, the EVP of Original Comedy and Adult Animation, at HBO Max said in a statement.
“We are proud to introduce this distinctive group of series from a wide range of diverse creators that will form a first stop destination for animation lovers everywhere.”
The Velma trailer features the new Scooby Gang, with Kaling playing Velma Dinkley, Constance Wu as Daphne, Glenn Howerton as Fred, and Sam Richardson as Norville. Joining the gang for their “origin story” season are Ming-Na Wen, Debby Ryan, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole as Lamont Rogers, Jane Lynch as Donna Blay, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic as Dandruff Tuba, and Nicole Byer as Blythe Rogers, with Cherry Jones, Wanda Sykes, Shay Mitchell, and more.
The Velma trailer makes it obvious the show is more mature than other iterations of the classic cartoon property. In other words, they’ll be gore, coarse language, and surprises lurking around every corner. We won’t wait long to see what Velma has in store for Scooby fans because the show launches tomorrow! I hope it’s a massive hit, and I can’t wait to see what other changes they’ve made to a well-worn property. Let’s dutch out the Mystery Machine and solve some mysteries, gang!