Actor Linda Cardellini played Velma, the brains of Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults and a dog (Scooby) who solve mysteries, who reunite after two-year disbandment, to investigate a mystery on a popular horror resort.
Linda Cardellini as Velma in James Gunn's film
Filmmaker James Gunn has revealed that the character of Velma was "explicitly gay" in the initial draft of the live-action film "Scooby-Doo", which he co-wrote with Craig Titly. The Warner Bros movie, directed by Raja Gosnell, was the big screen adaptation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera animated television franchise of the same name. Gunn further claimed that the idea of Velma's sexuality was "watered down" by the studio before the release of the film in 2002.
Actor Linda Cardellini played Velma, the brains of Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults and a dog (Scooby) who solve mysteries, who reunite after a two-year disbandment, to investigate a mystery on a popular horror resort. During an online Q&A, a Twitter user wrote to Gunn, "Please make our live-action lesbian Velma dreams come true."
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A still from the cartoon, Scooby-Doo
Gunn, best known for directing the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films in Marvel Cinematic Universe, said he "tried". "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)" the director, who also wrote the film's screenplay, replied. The 2002 film also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy and Rowan Atkinson as Emile. Neil Fanning lent his voice to Scooby.
The sequel to which Gunn referred, "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed", was released in 2004. Tony Cervone, the director of the recent animated Scooby-Doo adaptation "Scoob!", also commented on Velma's sexuality recently. "Velma in 'Mystery Incorporated' is not bi. She's gay," Cervone, who also served as supervising producer on TV series "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated", wrote on Instagram.
"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," he explained. Cervone's "Scoob!" was among many films that skipped theatrical release this year and was made available on-demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The reboot, which voice starred Mark Wahlberg, Zac Efron, among others, arrived in May.
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