Scooby-Doo’s Velma is a lesbian in new Halloween movie

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Scooby-Doo’s Velma Dinkley is officially out of the closet.

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Clips from a new movie Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! went viral this week showing the nerdy Mystery Incorporated member getting tongue tied when she meets a costume designer, confirming a theory held by Scooby fans for years.

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“OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY CANON IN THE MOVIES,” reads one tweet that has garnered over 226,000 likes.

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As Velma lays eyes on Coco Diablo, her face goes flush and she utters her famous line “jinkies.”

In another clip, Velma’s glasses melt when Diablo asks, “Do you know how rare it is for me to like someone other than myself?”

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In 2020, Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn (who previously scripted two live-action Scooby-Doo films) revealed he tried to make the bespectacled character gay but was shot down by studio execs.

“I tried! 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),” he tweeted, adding an annoyed emoji.

Supervising producer Tony Cervone backed up Gunn’s claims in a separate Instagram post.

“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.”

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Hayley Kiyoko, who played the character in a pair of made-for-TV Scooby movies, cheered the news on Twitter.

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Fans also reacted with enthusiasm with one person remarking, “Halloween really is a gay people only event,” while another shared, “Velma being gay is actually massive, we’re at a point in time when this major character, full of decades-old history and fans, gets to actually be a lesbian and that’s just another part of her canon now! Sometimes we need to celebrate these wins.”

A third declared, “We have won. Velma is a lesbian with impeccable tastes.”

But not everyone was pleased with the perceived change. “They destroyed Scooby Doo with this woke LGBTQIA nonsense. Just another attempt to indoctrinate children,” one person complained.

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In another upcoming adults-only spinoff from Mindy Kaling, Velma has been reimagined as a brown-skinned crime solver.

“Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” Kaling revealed earlier this spring. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”

Kaling added, “Nobody ever complained about a talking dog solving mysteries. So I don’t think they’ll be upset over a brown Velma.”

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! is currently available for digital rental or purchase.

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