Filmmaker James Gunn has revealed that the character of Velma was "explicitly gay" in the initial draft of the live-action film "Scooby-Doo", which he co-wrote with Craig Titly. The Warner Bros movie, directed by Raja Gosnell, was the big screen adaptation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera animated television franchise of the same name. Gunn further claimed that the idea of Velma's sexuality was "watered down" by the studio before the release of the film in 2002.

Actor Linda Cardellini played Velma, the brains of Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults and a dog (Scooby) who solve mysteries, who reunite after a two-year disbandment, to investigate a mystery on a popular horror resort. During an online Q&A, a Twitter user wrote to Gunn, "Please make our live-action lesbian Velma dreams come true."