HBO Max recently announced the premiere date of the long-awaited animated series, Velma, from The Office alum Mindy Kaling (Never Have I Ever, The Morning Show). According to Deadline, the new Scooby-Doo prequel will premiere on HBO Max on January 12.
According to Deadline, the show will tell the origin story of Velma Dinkley, voiced by Kaling, the brains behind the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang. The series will highlight the unsung, underappreciated, beloved mystery solver. Velma will use a humorous spin to tell the complex and colorful past of one of the most famous animated investigators in the world.
The cast of the show includes Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, The Hustlers) who will be voicing Daphne, while Glenn Howerton (The Mindy Project, How It Ends) will be voicing Fred and Sam Richardson (Hocus Pocus 2, HouseBroken) will voice Shaggy. Other cast members are Jane Lynch (Glee, Final Space), Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars, You), and Debby Ryan (Jessie, Insatiable), among others, in unknown roles. One of the actors included in the announcement is Frank Welker (Star Wars Resistance, Curious George) who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has voiced Fred in almost every animated version of the character since its beginnings in 1969. Welker has also voiced Scooby in several productions.
Details of the series have been kept under wraps, but Kaling announced to the fans that in this iteration, Velma will be South Asian. More specifically, Velma will be Indian in the new show. According to Entertainment Weekly, Velma is going to be gruesome unlike the many iterations of Scooby Doo. Kaling revealed an image from the show where the audience can see how a South Asian Velma comes across a new mystery when she finds a young woman with the top of her head sliced off. Unlike other iterations of the mystery-solving gang, Velma will be aimed at an older audience and will include more gory scenes.
Kaling will also executive produce Velma with her frequent collaborator, Charlie Grandy (The Office, The Mindy Project), who will also serve as showrunner, Howard Klein (Jessica Jones, Ordinary Joe), and Sam Register (Harley Quinn, Teen Titans Go!) who is also the president of Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network.
The show will premiere on January 12, 2023, on HBO Max. Other Scooby-Doo shows and movies are also available to watch on HBO Max. Don’t forget to watch the teaser of Velma below.