‘Scooby-Doo’s Velma Was Always Supposed To Be Gay, You Just Had To Pay Closer Attention, Creator Said
2020 has thrown so many wrenches and surprises at everyone, it’s kind of like waking up every day asking Google, “What’s next?” However, the most recent surprise (for some) was not a negative thing and it comes in the form of a gay Velma Dinkley.
James Gunn confirmed that Velma was written as ‘explicitly gay’ in the original ‘Scooby-Doo’ script
There have been so many versions of Scooby-Doo and his gang, each enjoyable in their own right. The whole concept of these meddlin’ kids and their dumb dog started in 1969 and has truly been beloved ever since.
While people can have — and have had — headcanons involving the members of Mystery Incorporated, it turns out that Velma being gay is actually canon. And it would have been more blatantly obvious in the 2002 live-action film Scooby-Doo if it weren’t for some meddling parents.
“I tried! In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” James Gunn shared on Twitter when a fan asked him to make Velma gay. Gunn wrote the first and second live-action films. “But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).”
Pink News reported that Gunn has even said the movie was supposed to be more for teen audiences with a PG-13 rating, but “three parents were outraged at a test screening in Sacramento.” The studio went with a more family-oriented version, which (apparently) included having to ax Velma’s gayness.
And it turns out, this isn’t the first time Velma was meant to be lesbian
That’s not all; Velma has been written as a lesbian for the last decade. It’s just been more alluded to than outwardly written in the script.
Tony Cervone, who’s worked on various Scooby-Doo projects since 2010, posted a Pride Month post to Instagram on June 28 and stated in a now-edited caption that Velma’s status within the LGBTQ community was always there.
“Marcie and Velma – Mystery Incorporated,” he wrote, alongside a picture of the two characters from 2010’s Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated. “I obviously don’t represent every version of Velma Dinkley, but I am one of the key people that represents this one. We made our intentions as clear as we could ten years ago. Most of our fans got it. To those that didn’t, I suggest you look closer. There’s no new news here.”
Unilad also reported that a Twitter user shared a screenshot of an argument Cervone had with someone on Instagram about the topic.
“I’ve said this before, but Velma in Mystery Incorporated is not bi. She’s gay,” he wrote. “We always planned on Velma acting a little off and out of character while she was dating Shaggy because that relationship was wrong for her and she had unspoken difficulty with the why.”
Cervone then cites his sources, as if writing and working on the series didn’t already give him credibility enough.
“There are hints about the why in that episode with the mermaid, and if you follow the entire Marcie arc it seems as clear as we could make it 10 years ago,” he wrote. “I don’t think Marcie and Velma had time to act on their feelings during the main timeline, but post reset, they are a couple. You can not like it, but this was our intention.”
A lot of fans are ecstatic, and honestly? The proof was in the pudding this whole time
As you can imagine, fans from the LGBTQ community and more are ecstatic about this development, if they didn’t already pick up on the writing from the 2010 series.
And, if you look back and read between the lines, there are other examples of Velma’s gayness. Whether she’s cheekily talking about Daphne’s grunting noises or about her looking up her skirt, the jokes are there.
Plus, Sarah Michelle Gellar — who played Daphne in the early 2000s live-action films — told Sci-Fi Wire that there’s a deleted scene of her and Linda Cardellini (Velma) kissing in the first film.
“It wasn’t just, like, for fun… initially, in the soul-swapping scene, Velma and Daphne couldn’t seem to get their souls back together in the woods, and so the way they found was to kiss and the souls went back into proper alignment,” she said. “Linda is quite a kisser.”
So whether you obviously see Velma kissing women in a Scooby-Doo movie or show, or not, just know she’s the people’s newest sapphic fave. Pride Month is every day for the gays.
