Velma has existed on the crowd’s radar for a long time for being an impressionable influence on the audience ever since Scooby and his gang became a household favorite. One of the aspects that made this character stand out, apart from her obvious sleuthing skills, was the shift away from the usual heteronormativity. But unfortunately, that remained a subject not to be broached under the studio’s supervising eye. Until now.
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Internet Divided Amid Velma’s Coming Out Party
The fan club of the Mystery Inc. team has for a long time harbored the hypothesis-turned-theory which suggestively indicated that Velma didn’t check the boxes on the heteronormative end of the spectrum. However, that immediately did not allow for the deduction to state that the character must then be inherently gay. A faction of the crowd found Velma’s personality to resound more closely with being bisexual.
The recent “coming out” of the inspirational character then upsets more than a few after the new movie explicitly grants her that elusive label that the studio steered clear of for so many years. Even as one faction cheers her on in celebration, Velma being a lesbian erases the validity of those who related to the character’s place on the spectrum as bisexual.
James Gunn & Tony Cervone Delves Into Velma’s Sexuality
Although very little is known about what goes on within a studio’s soundproofed walls, some of the influence seeps out into the light in its own time. And for James Gunn and Tony Cervone, the time is now. In 2020, Gunn claimed,
“In 2001, Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. 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).”
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This was followed up by a declaration from Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated series producer, Tony Cervone, in a Pride Month celebratory post that same year in which he claimed,
“I’ve said this before, but Velma in ‘Mystery Incorporated’ is not bi. She’s gay. We always planned on Velma acting a little off and out of character when she was dating Shaggy because that relationship was wrong for her and she had unspoken difficulty with the why. 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. 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.”
Although all of this works to validate the potential of more representation within children’s shows, it also then casts a negatively patronizing light on the existence of sexual orientations outside the binaries of straight and gay. On the other hand, the fans still remain hopeful that the step can mark a momentous decision for studios to move out of structured constraints and more toward a more educated and equal representation on screen.
Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! is now available for renting or purchasing on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Variety
