That iconic noughties Scooby-Doo film may have been panned by critics but it’s become something of a cult classic for a variety of reasons, one of them being the camaraderie between besties Velma (Linda Cardellini) and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar).
The film is a constant subject on pop culture social media pages, as you’ll notice from the constant array of purple in your Instagram feed.
Gellar’s purple-loving character Daphne is largely considered to be a gay icon, but what’s ironic is that Velma should be the gay icon as she was initially intended to be a lesbian.
Director James Gunn has responded to a fan tweet where a film buff stated that they’d love to see a live-action Velma where the character is gay.
“I tried!” He responded. “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).”
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1282482258998255616
This is not the first time Gunn and others involved with the franchise have spoken out about how storylines involving Velma’s sexuality were omitted from the final version of the film.
Sarah Michelle Gellar previously revealed that her character and Velma were supposed to kiss during a body-swap scene in the original film.
“It wasn’t just, like, for fun. … Initially in the soul-swapping scene, Velma and Daphne couldn’t seem to get their souls back together in the woods, and so the way they found was to kiss and the souls went back into proper alignment,” Gellar told Sci Fi Wire. “Linda is quite a kisser.”
Gunn also previously revealed in a Facebook post that the film’s rating was changed from PG-13 to PG to make it more “family-friendly.” He said he thought it was “a mistake” at the time to change the film’s rating as teens who’d come to watch the movie “didn’t get what they wanted (and didn’t come back for the sequel).”
A third Scooby-Doo film in the franchise was cancelled after the sequel received even shitter reviews than the first and underperformed at the box office, grossing more than $90 million less than the original film.
“The studio decided to go a more family-friendly route. Language and jokes and sexual situations were removed, including a kiss between Daphne and Velma. Cleavage was CGI’d over,” Gunn said in the 2017 post. “But, thankfully, the farting remained.”
As both a gay person and a Velma stan, I am extremely offended by this revelation.
REMAKE SCOOBY-DOO, DAMN IT!
