The HBO Max original hasn’t met the approval of all fans of the Scooby-Doo franchise, but it has certainly gained a lot of interest. Co-showrunner Mindy Kaling confirmed on Twitter that Velma had the biggest premiere day ever for an adult animated series on the streaming platform.
Despite some backlash over race-swapping three of the four original cast, as well as dropping Scooby-Doo himself, the cast has shared their thoughts on their characters and the animated series’ new take on Velma, Shaggy, Daphne and Fred.
Velma Cast Weigh in on Major Scooby-Doo Changes and Iconic Characters
Velma presents the origin story of Mystery Inc. by following the gang during their time at Crystal Cove High School, where Velma Dinkley (Mindy Kaling) is investigating a series of murders.
She enlists the help of her BFF-turned-nemesis Daphne Blake (Constance Wu), Norville “Shaggy” Rogers (Sam Richardson) and Fred Jones (Glenn Howerton) to solve the case.
Howerton and Richardson have spoken on several occasions about their characters, including what they make of the show’s changes to their traditional depictions.
In an interview with Toonado, Richardson shared how he felt his version of Shaggy should be seen as his own entity, rather than be compared to past iterations.
“My Shaggy or Norville is going to be completely different than Casey Kasem’s or Matthew Lillard’s or Will Forte’s,” the actor said, referring to past voice actors.
“So, it wasn’t ever going to be the same. I wasn’t taking cues from previous [performances], although I know them. I was really making Norville what it is in the script, and what is in the idea for this show, for Velma.”
Howerton also tried to do the same thing, as he added: “My approach was exactly what you just said, Sam. My knowledge of the show came from having seen so many, all the episodes of certainly the original Scooby-Doo cartoon, but then, also knowing that this was its own thing, and probably not even canon, although I don’t know that that’s true. Don’t quote me on that because I don’t know.
“And, just knowing the team and talking to them, and them being open to us really making it our own and so I kind of just went with that.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with The Wrap, Howerton also spoke about his approach to the character.
“For me personally, the thing I really kind of latched onto was this thing that I was feeling from the script that he was the classic popular kid who was kind of a bully,” the Always Sunny in Philadelphia star said.
“But what made this different was that he didn’t seem to know that he was a bully at all. There was an innocence there. I’ve been describing him as the innocent bully.”
Richardson added that he enjoyed the way Norville was “a confident nerd,” and went on to say: “I really appreciate that he is not a fully bullied nerd but he’s gotten this confidence in this level of maturity, but then immaturity here and there and his selfishness.
“I really appreciate that. And how he gets from here to there. I’m very curious to see how that plays out and his sobriety. He’s a sober Shaggy.”
Velma airs two episodes a week every Thursday on HBO Max.
