Brace yourselves for this news: Velma Dinkley is a lesbian. She always has been.
Fans’ years-long speculations were confirmed when clips from the new Trick Or Treat Scooby-Doo! film, which came out October 4th, featured a potential love interest for Velma: the fashion designer Coco Designer. I don’t think they could’ve made a better match for Velma if they tried. And now, delightfully, when you search her name on Google, a flurry of pride and lesbian flags celebrating the recent confirmation will rain down your screen.
Apparently, this movie wasn’t the first time that the show’s creators have tried to be explicit about Velma being a lesbian. ace variety reports, director James Gunn had intentions of making Velma a lesbian as early as 2001, but his plans were diverted by Warner Bros. “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” he tweeted in 2020. “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).” (The studio has since made him delete the tweet.)
That same year, director Tony Cervone also spoke out about Velma’s sexuality: “I’ve said this before, but Velma in ‘Mystery Incorporated’ is not bi. She she’s gay, ”he said in an Instagram post. “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.”
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Actors who have played Velma over the years are thrilled by the recent developments—something they themselves have thought about in the past while donning V’s signature orange turtleneck and glasses. During an Instagram Q&A, a fan asked Hayley Kiyoko, who played Velma, how she felt about the news. “I booked Velma in 2008. It was my first big role in a movie but I specifically remember thinking to myself ‘I wonder if they know they hired a lesbian as Velma,’” Kiyoko wrote. “And here we are 14 years later!!!! I’m happy for her coming out! I’m surprised and also not surprised whatsoever 😂”
Of course, Velma’s newly-confirmed queer identity already has some Republicans blue in the face. While right wing Twitter has made clear that they do not support imaginary characters like elves and mermaids being played by people of colorand they’re not cool with cartoon characters being gay, either. “If we’re going to bitch about appropriation, why do you need to take a straight character and make her lesbian,” conservative political commentator Steven Crowder said on a recent episode of his podcast Louder With Crowder. “Just go make your own. It’s not our fault people don’t want to watch it, just because we don’t want to watch a bunch of cartoon women shop at Bass Pro.” Was that seriously the best burn you could think of, Steve?
I’ll say it: Batman and Robin are gay. Bert and Ernie, gay. Peppermint Patty, for sure gay. C3PO: gay. But we don’t need to stop at the obvious—let’s go ahead and make George Jetson gay, too. Throw Squidward and Miss Fizzle in there. I want Sleeping Beauty awoken by a lesbian kiss. Let’s just consider all cartoons, elves, mermaids and superheroes gay for the foreseeable, until everybody can get their shit together and stop projecting their own anxieties onto fictional characters.
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