Jinkies! It looks like Velma just came out of the closet!
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated supervising producer and SCOOB! director Tony Cervone confirmed the cartoon character’s sexuality in a Pride-themed Instagram post. The post was originally made back in June in honor of Pride Month, but has only now gained attention from fans and media outlets.
“I’ve said this before, but Velma in Mystery Incorporated is not bi. She’s gay,” Cervone said in an Instagram comment. “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.”
James Gunn, the writer for 2002’s live action Scooby-Doo film, echoed Cervone’s statements on Twitter. The Guardians of the Galaxy director said that the Velma character, played by legend, icon, and star Linda Cardellini, was originally written as a lesbian. Gunn blamed the studio for “watering” her sexuality down and eventually cutting all references to it in the final cut of the film.
Even though it’s never been super explicit until now, it seems many fans have clocked the character’s sexuality throughout her various movies and TV appearances. To be honest, it was honestly one of the easier mysteries the show gave us.
VELMA IS A CANON LESBIAN LIKE WE BEEN KNEW BUT THE CONFIRMATION WAS NICE <3 pic.twitter.com/ahesUXcWCJ
— acab (@letsbians) July 12, 2020
What do you think of the movie studio giving Velma’s sexuality the chop? Should it have been left in? Did you already assume Velma was a lesbian? Sound off in the comments below!
Interesting how such things would pass right over your head as a child…but this article has more to do with deliberate censorship.
At school I remember learning how Shakespeare would handle gay characters. Nothing explicit and at times, gay characters would be deliberately unsympathetic so as not to be seen as an attack on people’s conservative values. However… you might notice how Othello and Iago’s long talks sometimes seemed like ‘the chase’ or even a marriage ceremony notably, “I am bound to you forever.” Notice how Iago from the very beginning says “I hate the Moor”, but never tells us why, why he eventually got Othello’s wife, Desdemona, out of the way, or why he hates his own wife so much, either. Jealousy?
I think, under the circumstance, that it’s just plain common sense, in solidarity, to say, “The struggle continues.” The recognition that “we are here…” seems both long overdue, and is, for sure, happening, but “we” are still far, far from true recognition…of our reality, our dignity, and our rightful place in the society of all peoples.