Mindy Kaling recently took the stage at the Speaking at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation to announce her upcoming adult animation comedy, Velma, which is a spinoff based on Velma Dinkley — the bright bookworm from the classic Scooby-Doo series.

This time around, however, you’ll get to see a new Velma. While most Scooby-Doo characters are white, Kaling has decided to make her version of Velma Indian. “Hopefully you noticed my Velma is South Asian,” Kaling told her audience. “If people freak out about that, I don’t care.”

The first-look still in question also betrays another interesting tidbit about the show — it’s going to be quite bloody. For most of Scooby-Doo’s runs since the originals in the late ’60s, despite the regular horror themes making an appearance, the films and cartoons have predominantly been kid friendly, as their target audience would suggest.

Interestingly, Velma will be encroaching on territory that’s largely charted by shows like Rick and Morty or Harley Quinn, giving adult viewers who grew up on the classics a chance to reconnect with the franchise. One of the best fan-made examples of such a concept is this absolutely hilarious voiceover, which throws the Mystery Machine gang into the brutal kinds of homicides seen in psycho-killer cases and loads of evil-cult horror flicks.

Despite the amazing potential here, a number of people on the internet criticized (as they often do) the upcoming show for not being accurate to the original character. While there’s a lot to say in response, Kaling herself addressed this in a recent interview with Seth Meyers.

“I just couldn’t understand how people couldn’t imagine a really smart, nerdy girl with terrible eyesight, and who loved to solve mysteries, could be Indian,” she remarked.

Announced in early 2021, the show will have Mindy Kaling billed as both the titular character’s voice artist and as an executive producer.

(Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery)