Jinkies! Mindy Kaling addressed the haters and trolls harshly challenging her role as Velma Dinkley in a Scooby Doo prequel series. Announced back in February, this HBO Max show will focus on Velma’s origin story and is aimed at adult audiences who grew up with the character. When visiting Late Night with Seth Meyers, the multi-hyphenate creative took some time to address those concerned with changes to the character.
“When it was announced that I was going to do the voice of Velma, people were really supportive and happy…” Kaling began. “And then it was announced about a month ago that the Velma character would be reimagined as South Asian and people were not happy.”
She went on to describe the negative reactions before quipping back, “I just couldn’t understand how people could imagine a really smart, nerdy girl with terrible eyesight who loved to solve mysteries could NOT be Indian. Like there are Indian nerds. It shouldn’t be a surprise to people.”
Kaling will be starring in and executive producing the new series, so she went on to assure fans that Velma is in loving hands.
“...We gotta be really careful with this character, which we will be because we really love her.” Watch the interview below and catch Mindy Kaling on Monsters At Work on Disney+.