Mindy Kaling's Velma gets an official release date at HBO Max

Kaling's animated Scooby Gang will have their big premiere in early 2023

By Hattie Lindert  |  December 20, 2022 | 8:54pm
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Mindy Kaling's Velma gets an official release date at HBO Max
Velma key art Image: Courtesy of HBO Max

As Twitter might say: Let Mindy Kaling’s Velma adaptation get a premiere date and serve bob. The animated Scooby-Doo origin story, in which Kaling serves as both creator and star, will officially land on HBO Max on Thursday, January 12 of next year.

The release date information arrived Monday in a tightly-bundled package— that is to say, buried deep in a “What’s New In January” release from the HBO Max. Beyond the official date, there’s still no confirmation on exactly what kind of release schedule Velma will follow at the streamer, be it weekly episodes or a full-season drop.

It’s the first substantial update on the series since a cheerfully meta first teaser premiered at New York Comic Con back in early October. At the time, Kaling promised a version of Velma—a character she said she’s “always wanted to voice”—that just “hasn’t been done before.”

“We thought these characters lend themselves so well to an adult version,” she shared.

Per HBO, Velma serves as an origin story for the bobbed, bespectacled Velma Dinkley (Kaling), and also highlights the “unsung and underappreciated brains” of the rest of the Scooby Gang: Fred (Glenn Howerton), Shaggy (Sam Richardson), and Daphne (Constance Wu). Again per the release, the “original and humorous spin unmasks the complex and colorful past of one of America’s most beloved mystery solvers.”

A bevy of additional voice talent pads out the extensive supporting cast, including (but far from limited to) Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Fortune Feimster, Nicole Byer, Yvonne Orji, Debby Ryan, Shay Mitchell, and NBA player Karl-Anthony Towns. Crossing off some sort of 2022 bingo, even “Weird Al” Yankovic makes an appearance on the bill.

 
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