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It's Mystery, Inc. like you've never seen them before in official trailer for HBO Max's 'Velma'
The Scooby-Doo!-inspired animated series arrives on HBO Max Thursday, Jan. 12.
Scooby-Dooby-Doo...where are you?! We ask because the easily-frightened Great Dane behind the classic cartoon franchise is nowhere to be found in the official trailer for HBO Max's Velma, which begins streaming tomorrow. Hailing from executive producer Mindy Kaling (The Office), the new animated series puts an adult-oriented spin on the Mystery, Inc. gang and their penchant for solving mysteries.
Ghosts and monsters still abound, of course, but now there are sex, drugs, swearing, and general debauchery thrown into the mix. What else is there to say other than "JINKIES!" Kaling leads the voice cast as Velma Dinkley, the smartest student at Crystal Cove High, who recruits three of her peers — Fred (Glenn Howerton), Norville (Sam Richardson), and Daphne (Constance Wu) — to unmask some spooky villains.
"I watched the original and there's some canon, but they've reinvented it," showrunner Charlie Grandy explained back in November during an interview with Bleeding Cool. "So it's not like you're doing Batman. That gave us a little bit of freedom. And I think everyone has that feeling of, 'I'm the one doing all the work. I'm the smart one, but I'm not in the front seat. Fred and Daphne are in the front seat. I'm in the back seat with Shaggy and the dog.' It's not only aspirational. It's relatable."
Watch the trailer now:
RELATED: 'Velma' boss says show reinvents 'Scooby-Doo!' canon: 'It's not like you're doing Batman'
"It's such a joy to be able to work with those characters," Kaling remarked to TV Insider over the fall. "We're so grateful to Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Animation to let us do that; to give us leeway to modernize certain elements. But honestly [it's] terrifying, too, because everyone loves Velma. You go to the floor of Comic-Con or every Halloween, and she's just such an iconic character. She's like Batman for nerdy Indiana girls like me. So we don't want to mess it up and we're so proud of the show."
Russell Peters, Melissa Fumero, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Ken Leung, Cherry Jones, Fortune Feimster, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Byer, Shay Mitchell, Debby Ryan, Kulap Vilaysak, and Karl-Anthony Towns also lend their voices to the project (via EW). Howard Klein and Sam Register are executive producers alongside Kaling and Grandy.
Velma premieres on HBO Max tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 12. The show currently holds a 60 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Want to see more of Mindy Kaling's comedy chops in action? All nine season of The Office are now streaming on Peacock, as well as several seasons of super-sized extended episodes.
