Fans cheer as Velma is shown crushing on a woman in the new Scooby-Doo movie

Fans have been theorizing for years, but now clips from the new movie Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! appear to confirm it — the character Velma Dinkley is attracted to women.

"It honestly did not occur to [me] that we were doing something so groundbreaking until right now," the movie's director, Audie Harrison, told NPR in an email. "While writing and directing this, I just set out to have fun with the comedy of an awkward teenage crush."

He added, "I actually thought it was a bigger deal for Velma's character that she is in love with the villain of the movie. The fact that she is a girl is just... well, a fact. That being said, it does feel great to be a part of normalizing representation, especially with such a well-known franchise like Scooby-Doo!"

The animated movie, which was released for purchase on digital platforms Tuesday, includes a new character, the head of a costume crime syndicate named Coco Diablo. The object of Velma's infatuation, the Mystery Inc. member's glasses fog up and cheeks flush as she swoons in multiple scenes.

In one scene, Daphne teases about convicted felons being Velma's type. The bespectacled detective tries to deny it, then cries out, "Oh, who am I kidding? I'm crushing big-time, Daphne! What do I do? What do I say?"

A tweet reading "OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY CANON CANON IN THE MOVIES LETS GOOOOOO" accompanying a clip in which Velma first sees Coco has garnered more than 200,000 likes.

People behind the scenes of the Scooby-Doo franchise have been trying to depict Velma's sexual orientation for at least 20 years. James Gunn, who wrote live-action Scooby-Doo movies released in 2002 and 2004, tweeted in 2020 that Velma was "explicitly gay" in a 2001 script. Gunn added that Warner Bros. eventually took these details out of the first movie, and even gave Velma a boyfriend in the sequel.

This time around, Harrison described a different scenario with Warner Bros. "From my perspective, they were very supportive of this direction for Velma's character from day one and it never seemed like they were too worried about how it would be perceived. Which was very refreshing," he said.

"I've said this before, but Velma in 'Mystery Incorporated' is not bi. She's gay," Tony Cervone, the 2010-2013 animated series' supervising producer wrote on Instagram in 2020. "If you follow the entire Marcie arc it seems as clear as we could make it 10 years ago. I don't think Marcie and Velma had time to act on their feelings during the main timeline, but post reset, they are a couple. You can not like it, but this was our intention."

NPR reached out to Warner Bros. and representatives for Kate Micucci, who voices Velma, and Myrna Velasco, who voices Coco Diablo, for comment but did not immediately hear back.

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