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Nearing the release of the 10-episode season on HBO Max, all the talk has revolved around The Office‘s alumni, Mindy Kaling playing everyone’s favorite geek-girl, Velma Dinkley, in the animated Scooby-Doo origin story series, Velma. While brainstorming regarding Velma’s look, showrunner Charlie Grandy and Kaling decided to look for inspiration in a somewhat unlikely place.

Prompted by the fact that she knew she would voice Velma, the actress explained to Entertainment Weekly that she and Grandy eventually touched on Velma’s appearance. “We knew it would be fun for me to play Velma, but we had a conversation where Velma is white, and we have this new choice to do the show, and if I’m voicing her, should she be white or should she not?” the actress said. “We were really inspired by Into the Spider-Verse—it’s animation, we can do anything. The essence of Velma is not necessarily tied to her whiteness. And I identify so much as her character, and I think so many people do, so it’s like, yeah, let’s make her Indian in this series.”

In the newly released Velma teaser, the audience gets the first glimpse at a South Asian animated Velma, proving that Kaling and Grandy made the right call in the end. “It felt like it really kept the heart of the show,” she said. The series will also explore a new side of the group where they aim to explore how the Mystery Inc. crew came together. Kaling also added that Velma would be facing more arduous moments ahead, being the perfect character “to handle a scarier environment.”

Just recently, Scooby-Doo, namely Velma, have been at the heart of celebration among fans after the 53-year-old show finally introduced the brains of the group as canonically queer. In the latest direct-to-disc animated film, Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo!, Velma becomes the only lesbian character in the franchise upon falling in love at first sight with fashion designer Coco Diablo. Only time will tell if Kaling and Grandy will introduce Velma as queer in the animated series.

The adult-oriented animated series, Velma, is currently developing at HBO Max and is expected to be released in 2023.

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