It’s time for a queer actor to play Scooby-Doo’s Velma. (Getty/Canva/Warner Bros)
If studies are right, there’s a Scooby-Doo live-action remake within the works at Netflix. Take into account this our official petition for a queer actor to play lesbian legend Velma.
In accordance with Selection, the stay motion Scooby-Doo reboot will likely be a based mostly on the much-loved animated collection, though plot particulars are nonetheless secret.
Ever because the cartoon’s debut in 1969, it’s been one thing of a shocking sexual awakening for queer girls. That’s largely due to the glamorous purple princess Daphne Blake (notably Sarah Michelle Gellar’s take within the 2002 film Scooby-Doo), and all-round genius Velma Dinkley (Linda Cardellini in that purple latex swimsuit was a revelation).
For many years, Velma has been placed on a pedestal and browse as a lesbian icon by queer girls. In recent times, there was vindication for that hypothesis: in each the 2022 animated movie, Trick or Deal with Scooby-Doo, and Mindy Kaling’s opinion-dividing 2023 TV collection Velma, the whip-smart sleuth was portrayed as a queer lady.
Now, there’s a chance to make Velma a lesbian in a live-action model of the spooky journey collection – and to function a queer actor within the position.
It’s solely doubtless, as nicely: the brand new present will reportedly be produced by homosexual screenwriter Greg Berlanti, identified for his work on LGBTQ+-tinted TV reveals and movies, together with Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, The Damaged Hearts Membership, Red, White & Royal Blue, Love, Simon and new, very queer hit, Lifeless Boy Detectives.
Whereas no forged is more likely to attain the generation-defining heights of the 2002 and 2004 movies, listed here are 5 queer girls and non-binary stars we’d like to see play Velma.
Katy O’Brian
Recent from her greatest position so far, in Kristen Stewart’s brutal sapphic bodybuilding thriller Love Lies Bleeding, Katy O’Brian can be a fairly stable decide for Velma.
Her star has continued to rise in recent times, following appearances throughout enormous TV reveals from The Strolling Lifeless to The Mandalorian, however the subsequent 12 months or so may very well be even larger for her: she’s attributable to star alongside Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman and Tom Cruise in Mission: Not possible – Lifeless Reckoning Half Two, billed as the ultimate movie within the hit franchise.
Whereas Velma is extra brains than brawn, it might be an fascinating profession transfer for the star.
Emma Corrin
Golden-Globe-winning Emma Corrin is aware of how you can play a cool, calm and picked up beginner detective: final 12 months, the My Policeman star had the lead position in new Disney+ thriller, A Homicide on the Finish of the World. Tackling Velma can be a stroll within the park.
Plus, Corrin, additionally seen in The Crown and set to look in Deadpool & Wolverine, appears to embody a few of Velma’s perfect traits: they’re assured and content material with who they’re, plus extremely clever, being a Cambridge graduate who has studied Shakespeare intently.
Jasmin Savoy Brown
Scream queen and queer actress Jasmin Savoy Brown is likely to be trying to ebook her subsequent venture, contemplating season three of Yellowjackets – by which she is going to reprise the position of sweet sixteen Taissa Turner – has been delayed by final 12 months’s Hollywood strikes. Plus, her participation in Scream 7 is presently unconfirmed, regardless of her star flip as Mindy Meeks-Martin up to now two movies within the franchise.
Filling her calendar isn’t the one cause we wish to see Brown as Velma. It’s clear she thrives within the spooky thriller style. When you join the dots, it makes good sense.
Lili Reinhart
If you concentrate on it, bisexual actress Lili Reinhart is ideal for the thriller style, contemplating her seven-year tenure as extremely smart FBI agent Betty Cooper in Riverdale, which ended final 12 months. Get her on the primary aircraft out and strapped into The Thriller Machine.
Ayo Edebiri
It’s a indisputable fact that Scooby-Doo is a comedy journey collection moderately than merely a ghostly one, and The Bear star Ayo Edebiri is a comedy professional, whether or not that’s whereas portraying a highschool lesbian loser in Bottoms, or when answering press questions at award reveals.
Velma will be seen because the uptight one within the gang, and Edebiri, who’s voiced characters in Clone Excessive and Spider-Man: Throughout the Spider-Verse, would possibly loosen her up a bit.