Velmahas just dropped a new trailer ahead of its premiere tomorrow, and it showcases a new twist on the Scooby-Doo formula. The trailer is full of in-jokes about the series, and shows that this incarnation will be a touch more light-hearted (and a lot more adult) than the average Scooby-Doo cartoon.
Velmais set to take a few liberties with the source material.Scooby-Doo isn’t present inVelma,because Mindy Kaling couldn’t figure out how to fit in such a kid-friendly character into the series. The top brass over at Warner Bros. Animation also forbade use of the character, presumably given the adult content of the series.
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The new, age-restricted trailer was dropped onHBO Max’s YouTube account. Velma (Kaling) talks in a voice-over, saying that this is her story, told her own way. She states that she’s chronicling the events that led her to assemble the greatest team of spooky mystery solvers ever. The trailer then proceeds to introduce fans to the new versions of Mystery Inc., and they’re fairly different this time around.
First up isShaggy (Sam Richardson); this versionaids Velma in her investigations. He’s her best friend, and has a crush on her. He also “hates drugs”, a twist on the common fan assumption that Shaggy likes to smoke marijuana in other Scooby-Doo cartoons. This version of Shaggy also goes by Norville (Shaggy has always been a nickname, even in other iterations), and appears to be something of a journalist, and less cowardly.
Fred (Glenn Howerton) is then introduced as a vain jerk. He disregards Velma because she’s not “hot”, and is hugely self-absorbed. Thisversion of Daphne(Constance Wu) is a mean, popular girl who was once friends with Velma, but who abandoned her to get in with the cool kids - a fact that Velma still resents. There are also hints that Velma and Daphne have a crush on one another; another common fan assumption being that Velma is a lesbian (which later became canon in one of the direct-to-video films). Velma even makes a joke about not being able to speculate about someone’s sexuality, unless they’re “famous or Peppermint Patty” (another cartoon character speculated to be a lesbian icon).
The trailer also reveals that the murder at the heart of the series is supernatural in nature. There’s a few cameos fromsome classic Scooby-Doo villains, including the Ghost of Captain Cutler, though their relation to the main mystery is unclear. The team appears to be fully assembled by the end of the trailer, so despite their adaptational changes, Mystery Inc. will still be around.
