{"id":237201,"date":"2022-10-05T13:17:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T17:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/?p=237201"},"modified":"2022-10-05T13:18:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T17:18:00","slug":"velma-lesbian-scooby-doo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/culture\/velma-lesbian-scooby-doo-237201","title":{"rendered":"Twenty years after the live-action &#8216;Scooby-Doo&#8217; film, Velma\u2019s finally out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-article-kik\">Director James Gunn fought for \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d\u2019s Velma to be queer in the 2002 live-action film. Twenty years later, she&#8217;s officially a lesbian<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">If you were a Scooby-Doo kid growing up, you might be queer now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know how (at least in the late \u201990s and early \u201900s) there were Hot Wheels kids or Disney Princess kids or horse kids? I was a Scooby-Doo kid through and through. For a good chunk of my childhood, the cartoon dog and his friends defined my life. I\u2019m talking posters, movies, stuffed animals, pencils\u2014you name it, I probably had the Scooby-Doo version of it. As a queer and trans person now, it makes sense when I look back at that time in my life: Scooby-Doo was the ultimate non-gendered franchise, not relegated to the realm of \u201cfor boys\u201d or \u201cfor girls.\u201d For a latent baby gay, it was the ideal middle ground.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I bring this up, because if you were queer and\/or trans former Scooby-Doo kid and now an adult in 2022, the eating is <em>good<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Velma\u2019s a lesbian\u2014like, for real this time. A new animated film, <em>Trick or Treat Scooby Doo!<\/em>, which comes out Oct. 14, will give us our first explicitly canonical lesbian Velma content in the form of her having a big ol\u2019 longing gay crush on a hot indie girl. Because who among us hasn\u2019t had that exact scenario be part of our gay awakening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY CANON CANON IN THE MOVIES LETS GOOOOOO <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0ilx2uid1q\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/0ilx2uid1q<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Trin (@MythicalLlamaXO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MythicalLlamaXO\/status\/1577071236718657537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 3, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Scooby-Doo<\/em> scribes have long hinted at and discussed Velma being queer, including <em>Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated<\/em> series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CCAB5kPDDqG\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=fb962240-e6f6-4c52-8ea7-f63e00d21417\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">producer Tony Cervone in 2020<\/a>. But this is the first time it\u2019s canon in an official franchise property. And that\u2019s a big deal. More openly queer characters in media directed at kids is a good thing, especially ones as iconic as Velma.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As queer singer Hayley Kiyoko, who played Velma in the franchise\u2019s live-action 2009 TV movie, said, it\u2019s been a long time coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/HayleyKiyoko\/status\/1577416166016176133?s=20&#038;t=NIhfF7yT8wkCyQ5ij-tnKg\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of that, we can\u2019t forget that this year marks the 20th anniversary of James Gunn\u2019s 2002 live-action <em>Scooby Doo<\/em> film, which itself is a vital piece of queer canon. In fact, Gunn has said he tried to make Velma gay in the film, but was shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,\u201d he wrote in a 2020 tweet. \u201cBut the studio just kept watering it down &amp; watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) &amp; finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But while Linda Cardellini\u2019s Velma wasn\u2019t explicitly queer in the film, Gunn\u2019s intentions definitely connected at least with me and other budding queers\u2014particularly via one bonus scene from the DVD version where she sings Frank Sinatra on a piano in a way that seems <em>very<\/em> pointed at Sarah Michelle Gellar\u2019s Daphne.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"You&#039;re just too good to be true. Velma. Scooby Doo.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hgga_I60uts?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">But the film (and its excellently camp 2004 sequel <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TT76WvGRGEs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed<\/a><\/em>,<em> <\/em>which does feature a scene of Shaggy turning into a woman<em>)<\/em> broadcasts its queerness in other ways. There\u2019s the body-swapping scene, where members of the Scooby gang swap bodies and genders for a brief period. There\u2019s Gellar, fresh off of queer icon status from <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em>. And of course, there are the broader themes of being an outcast, coming together and chosen family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end\"><em>Scooby-Doo<\/em>\u2019s super queer! And it\u2019s finally canon with lesbian Velma. Now we just need Daphne to come out as the bisexual we all know she is, and my fanfiction dreams can come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director James Gunn fought for \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d\u2019s Velma to be queer in the 2002 live-action film. Twenty years later, she&#8217;s officially a lesbian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1177,"featured_media":237203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editorial_slug":"10","_editorial_slug":"10","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"contributors":[1933],"topic":[162],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[58],"editorial_format":[27],"type-of-work":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237201"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237234,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237201\/revisions\/237234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=237201"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=237201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}