The character with the orange turtleneck and glasses is now being represented as an LGBTQ character on television after years of controversy.
The brand-new Scooby-Doo! film, "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!," which debuted on Cartoon Network on October 14 and was made available online on Tuesday, made it clear that Velma had an attraction to women.
In the film, Coco Diablo, a villain and costume designer, is the object of Velma's crush.
The film's director, Audie Harrison, told NPR, "It honestly did not occur to [me] that we were producing something so significant until just now."
"I genuinely believed that Velma's character had more to lose by falling in love with the film's antagonist. She is a girl, which is simply... a reality," Harrison continued. Nevertheless, it is wonderful to be a part of normalising representation, particularly with such a well-known franchise like Scooby-Doo.
Although the show's creators have previously acknowledged that Velma isn't straight, this is the first time in the franchise's long history that she has openly flirted with or shown interest in another female character, according to NBC News.
The live-action "Scooby Doo" and "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" scripts were written by James Gunn, who revealed in 2020 that he attempted to depict Velma as a lesbian but was rejected by the Warner Bros. studio.
"In my first script, Velma was openly gay in 2001. However, the studio just kept diluting it, making it vague (in the version shot), then nothing (in the version that was released), and ultimately having a boyfriend (in the sequel)," he tweeted at the time.
On October 4, "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!" was made available digitally, and on October 14, it will air on Cartoon Network.
