Yahoo News Mindy Kaling's mystery-solver twerks in first Velma trailer
The Scooby gang is back! Well, except for Scooby.
Velma has a murder mystery on her hands in the first full-length trailer for Velma, Mindy Kaling's animated series centered on the origins of the beloved brainiac from the Scooby-Doo franchise.
Co-creator and executive producer Kaling voices the titular character, now South Asian, and recounts the story of the "bone-chilling events" that led her to assemble "the greatest team of spooky mystery-solvers ever" in the trailer.
Enter: Velma's high school classmates Daphne (Constance Wu), Fred (Glenn Howerton), and Norville (Sam Richardson), the series' iteration of the iconic stoner Shaggy, who apparently "hates" drugs in this retelling.
When a fellow classmate is found murdered, Velma becomes prime suspect No. 1. "If I can't convince people I didn't kill Brenda, I'm gonna be arrested!" she says to Norville. It's up to the gang to track down the real culprit.
Described as an "original and humorous spin that unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of America's most beloved mystery-solvers," the 10-episode series debuts on HBO Max on Jan. 12 with two episodes. New episodes will follow on Thursdays until the Feb. 9 finale.
HBO Max 'Velma'
Additional voice stars this season include Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Weird Al Yankovic, Ming-Na Wen, Yvonne Orji, franchise staple Frank Welker, Weird Al Yankovic, Fortune Feimster, Yvonne Orji, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Byer, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, and Ken Leung, among others.
Kaling previously told EW at New York Comic-Con that Into the Spider-Verse inspired her to do a series on a South Asian Velma. "It's animation, we can do anything," she said. "The essence of Velma is not necessarily tied to her whiteness. And I identify so much as her character, and I think so many people do, so it's like, yeah, let's make her Indian in this series."
Watch the trailer for Velma above.
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