Juliette Moreau Alvarez 4:56 p.m., October 06, 2022, modified at 4:57 p.m., October 06, 2022

It was a coming-out eagerly awaited by pop culture fans: Véra, the young bespectacled woman from the "Scoobi-Doo" franchise explicitly shows her attraction to women in a new film released on a streaming platform.

Although many felt Vera was queer, nothing was clear from the character's inception.

There are no more mysteries to solve: the character of Vera is officially a lesbian.

In the latest film in the Scooby-Doo

franchise

, 

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, 

Véra develops an attraction for Coco Diablo, a female character that does not leave her indifferent.

Facing the new protagonist, Vera blushes, her glasses fog up.

She notes that Coco is "obviously brilliant", wears "incredible glasses" and a "beautiful turtleneck", not to mention her passion for animals.

The young woman is immediately under the spell.

"I'm completely cracking Daphne! What am I doing? What am I saying?" Vera asks her lifelong friend in the film released on October 4 on HBO Max.

Fans are delighted with this revelation.

The "nerd" in the orange turtleneck had long been portrayed as queer by the fan community.

Many were already convinced that she loved women, and dreamed that the creators would show it explicitly.

It's now done.

In 2008, actress Hayley Kiyoko played the character in a live-action film and said: "I remember when I got the role of Vera in 2008. It was my first big role. in a movie. I also remember thinking 'I wonder if they know they hired a lesbian to play Vera' and here we are 14 years later…"

I remember booking Velma in 2008. It was my first big role in a movie.

I also remember thinking 'I wonder if they know they hired a lesbian as Velma' here we are, 14 years later...... love you all so much

— Hayley Kiyoko (@HayleyKiyoko) October 4, 2022

An open secret?

It is therefore 53 years after her very first appearance that the floor is free for Vera.

Yet even people who worked on the character saw her as a gay icon.

The franchise has notably passed through the hands of Tony Cervone, director and producer of numerous

Scooby-Doo

films , who in 2020 and 2021 published on his Instagram account a drawing of Véra and another female character in front of an LGBT flag.

Tony Cervone had explained that he had left some clues in his works and specified: "we expressed our intentions as clearly as possible ten years ago. Most of the fans understood. For those who did not understand, I suggest you take a closer look. There's nothing new here."

See this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tony Cervone (@tonycervone)

James Gunn, who wrote the live-action

Scooby-Doo

films in the early 2000s, also tried to portray Vera as gay.

"In 2001, Véra was explicitly gay in my initial screenplay. But the studio kept watering it down [...]".

The director of the new Halloween film, Audie Harrison, explained that he simply wanted to "have fun with a comedy about an awkward teenager 'crush'": "That being said, it's really good to participate in the normalization of representations, especially with a franchise as well known as

Scooby-Doo

!”, he greeted.

Vera's coming out is therefore celebrated by fans, but also the actors, producers and directors who once worked on the franchise.

Google also gave a nod to this revelation: when you type the heroine's name on the search engine, an animation now clicks to greet the new (but not so new) queer icon. of pop culture.