Fans Can't Stop Shipping Velma With Her New Crush From Trick Or Treat Scooby-Doo!
The "Scooby Doo" franchise got its start as a Saturday morning animated series in 1969 alongside cartoons like "Tom and Jerry," "The Pink Panther," and "Woody Woodpecker" (via MeTV). Originally titled "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" the show featured teenagers Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their dog, a Great Dane named Scooby-Doo, driving to different locations in their Mystery Machine, solving crimes and mysteries. The show was a hit with viewers, and since that first cartoon, we've seen many "Scooby-Doo" films, series, reboots, shorts, and spin-offs.
In 2002, the first live-action "Scooby Doo" film was released, with a then unknown James Gunn writing the screenplay. While Gunn has said that his version was initially R-Rated, he's also spoken about his Velma being gay. When a fan asked tweeted Gunn in 2020 to "make our live-action lesbian Velma dreams true," he responded, saying "I tried! In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio just kept watering it down and watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version), and finally having a boyfriend (the sequel)" (per NBC News).
Now, with clips of the new animated film, "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!" going viral, fans are ecstatic over Velma's interactions with her new crush.
Fans can't stop posting tweets and fan art about Velma and Coco
Velma Dinkley (Kate Micucci) has been getting a lot of attention lately. Not only is Mindy Kaling's "Velma" animated series hopefully coming out by the end of this year, but "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!" was also released on October 4 with a (finally) unabashedly gay Velma storyline. While the crew is up to their usual shenanigans, Velma is distracted by the lovely suspected villain, Coco Diablo (Myrna Velasco). A scene between Velma and Daphne shows her trying to deny any feelings for Coco before she admits the truth, telling Daphne, "Who am I kidding? I'm crushing big time, Daphne! What do I do? What do I say?" Fans are loving it, with @sladedrawing tweeting, "Velma being a gay disaster is just the thing I need in my life..."
While fans have been posting their excitement about seeing Velma fawn over Coco, there has also been an explosion of fanart of the pair, which @EG_Robert1 noted, tweeting. "Seeing the increase of Velma and Coco fanart [is] just (teary-eyed smiley face and heart emojis). You're doing great artists!!"
"It honestly did not occur to [me] that we were doing something so groundbreaking until right now," director Audie Harrison told NPR. "I actually thought it was a bigger deal for Velma's character that she is in love with the villain of the movie. The fact that she is a girl is just ... well, a fact." This simple truth and way of looking at it is a big part of what is making fans so happy.