Is Velma Lesbian In The New ‘Trick Or Treat Scooby-Doo!’ Movie?

The above logo belongs to Velma, which will be Mindy Kaling’s much more grown-up take on the brains of the Scooby-Doo gang. Kaling anticipates that the series will make some people “freak out” because Velma will be South Asian, and Scooby won’t be a focus of the show. That’s not the HBO Max Velma project that we’re here to talk about today. Instead, people are talking about the new Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo movie that slid onto HBO Max on October 4.

This movie will also be a more adult version of the turtlenecked character than we’re used to seeing in pop culture history. Actually, that’s not entirely true because Variety reminds everyone of what James Gunn (who wrote two Scooby-Doo movies in the aughts) confirmed about Velma Dinkley (played by Linda Cardellini): “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script.” Gunn added that “the studio just kept watering it down” before making her “ambitious” and “then nothing” before giving her “a boyfriend” (played by Seth Green) in the sequel. And over on Instagram, Tony Cervone has also declared (while posting a Pride image starring Velma and Marcie) of the Mystery Incorporated series, “We made our intentions as clear as we could ten years ago.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo has Velma crushing on Coco Diablo, who is (via the film’s synopsis) “the head of the notorious costume crime syndicate that colludes The Black Knight, Space Kook and the Ghost Diver.” In other words, yep, Velma is outwardly lesbian in this movie, which is nothing new for her (offscreen), but people love to see it.

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo is currently streaming on HBO Max.