The beloved Mystery Incorporated has been a part of our lives since 1969 and has remained a huge part of many childhoods since then, but Mindy Kaling is destroying that with her new show based on the one and only Velma Dinkley.

“Velma” is set to release to HBOMax in 2023 consisting of many amazing things that have gotten a lot of backlash. There are truly great strides and changes to the gang that I personally love to see.

The cast of Mystery Inc. has been switched around. The Gang is no longer an all-white group going around and fighting ghosts that turn out to be the janitor, but people of all different races. 

Kaling herself is playing Velma, and the character is set to be South Asian. Daphne will be played by Constance Wu, making her the first Asian iteration of the character. 

Shaggy will be played by Sam Richardson giving Shaggy the first Black version of himself (see? It is not just white people who can get stoned and solve crime). Glenn Howerton will play Fred; Fred, of course, is as white as the polo shirts he always wears, and is integral to his character.

This gives the show a lot of diversity and range, which I am really looking forward to. 

However, Kaling is reported to have taken a lot of hate for changing the characters’ race; but she stands proud behind her decision. 

“Hopefully, you noticed my Velma is South Asian. If people freak out about that, I don’t care,” Kaling told Movie Web.

(Slay Queen).

As proud as I, and many others, are of the progress, there are some people who are incredibly upset at the notion that people of color can solve mysteries.

“Mindy Kaling will ruin Scooby Doo with her new show. Velma is going to have sex and she’s going to investigate real murders, it’s disgusting! Scooby is a children’s cartoon, she can’t do that!” wrote @okbutstill on Twitter. 

@LivingScribe on Twitter said, “This is just a Mindy Kaling vanity project using Velma as a springboard and it’s obvious.”

The show will be taking a much more adult light that the gang has never really seen before. The first few clips of the teaser trailer show blood, a knife and some smart satire.

According to Movie Web, the very first look viewers got at the series even showed someone getting their head cleaved off.

In the preview shown at a Warner Bros upfront, there is also a nude Daphne in the background, truly showing that the show will not keep its lightheartedness as close to the belt as the original. 

There has been an even bigger controversy over the fact that Velma will officially be coming out as a lesbian. 

“It’s long been an open secret among fans and ‘Scooby-Doo’ creatives that Velma is gay,” wrote Ethan Shanfield for Variety. “Even James Gunn, who wrote the early live-action films, and Tony Cervone, who served as supervising producer on the ‘Mystery Incorporated’ series, have confirmed the character’s sexuality, but they were never able to make it official on screen.” 

The character has never not been gay, but the fear of backlash towards the show was so intense that the writers gave Velma and Shaggy a relationship during the first season of “Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated.”

There are undeniably many great changes to be proud of for this upcoming show. However, the real controversy that everyone on the face of the earth should be upset about is the missing cast member; the hero who has been the face of Mystery Inc. forever. 

Scooby Dooby Doo, the beloved canine companion throughout the show, who has been the bread and butter of the gang since the very beginning, will not be in the new show. 

“It features adult versions of the crew from the mystery machine, but in order to ensure that Velma is front and center, Scooby himself won’t be making any appearances,” wrote Christian Zilko for Indie Wire. 

Then find a way to write the show with Scooby in it that focuses on a more Velma-centered plot line! Is it really that hard!?

Taking Scooby Doo out of the show, regardless of whether or not it is an adult show or not, is unacceptable, and we as fans deserve more and deserve better.

If the dog is not brought back, Mindy Kaling is dead to me. I expect a full handwritten apology, a rewrite and/or a signed Scooby Doo plushie. Mindy, you can contact me anytime at 1-800-BRING-BACK-THE-DOG.