WildeHopps

WildeHopps is the het ship between Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps from the Zootopia fandom.

Canon
During her first day as an officer of the Zootopia Police Department, Judy Hopps - the first rabbit on the force, although she was currently on parking duty, had spotted a pair of foxes walking into an elephant-scaled ice cream parlor. Suspicious of what they were doing in an establishment that was meant for larger animals, Judy put her ticketing on hold to to see what they were doing. Only to find out she had jumped the gun as the "older" of the foxes, a red fox named Nick Wilde was simply trying to buy a popsicle for his "son" Finnick. The owner of the parlor, Jerry Jumbeaux Jr. is being blatantly discriminatory against Nick and Finn due to the both of them being foxes. So Judy intervened by pointing out health code violations in the establishment and using the knowledge to get Jerry to serve the foxes, even paying for the popsicle herself upon discovering that Nick "lost" his wallet. Nick introduces himself to Judy before thanking her for the assistance, to which Judy says that it's wrong for foxes to be treated as shifty crooks like Jerry did. With Judy needing to get back to work and Nick ready to leave with his "son", the two part ways.

Later that day, while Judy is ticketing vehicles in Sahara Square, she happens to see Nick again. Alarmingly, he's seemingly melting the popsicle she bought for him earlier into smaller "pawpsicles" and selling them to a group of lemmings alongside his "son". Judy decides to tail them after seeing that, during which she learns that Finnick is actually a fennec fox - and thus was actually an adult masquerading as a kit - and that they sell the used "pawpsicle" sticks as mouse-scale lumber. While angrily confronting Nick about the deception, the fox reveals to Judy that he actually has permits for what he does, which floors her and opens the way for Nick to begin deriding Judy's optimistic view of the city and her prospects as an officer. This leaves Judy dumbfounded as Nick casually leaves for other "business".

Judy later blackmails Nick into helping her solve the case of missing Emmitt Otterton by threatening him with arrest for felony tax evasion, but during the course of that case, Nick and Judy learn to trust one another, after Judy saves Nick's life and Nick stands up to Judy's Chief.

After the solving of the missing mammals case, Judy asks Nick to become her partner officially, however Judy's words in the following press conference regarding predators going savage cause their relationship to fracture and Nick leaves her behind. Judy would later leave the city, but would go looking for Nick once again after realizing the truth behind the savage mammals - that a plant called Night Howler was causing them to go savage. Judy offers a heartfelt and tearful apology to Nick for her previous words and actions, which Nick accepts, and the pair learn the truth behind the Night Howler conspiracy. Their trust for each other is shown after they hustle Dawn Bellwether, the sheep mayor behind the Night Howler plot, by switching out a pellet in the Night Howler gun with a blueberry. Nick pretends to go 'savage' and hunt Judy, and only after Bellwether confesses to her plot (which is being recorded by Judy), is their ruse revealed.

Months later, Nick is admitted to the Zootopia Police Department as Judy's partner, the pair exchanging proud looks as Judy gives Nick his badge. During their first case, in which they are tasked with chasing down a speed racer, Nick playfully tells Judy "You know you love me." To which Judy replies, "Do I know that? Yes, yes I do."

The pair later attend the concert of pop star Gazelle, in which Judy enthusiastically gets Nick to dance along by hip-checking him.

Fanon
WildeHopps is without a doubt one of, if not the, most popular ships in the Zootopia fandom. One of the biggest contributors is their chemistry despite seeming to be opposites of each other. Namely, while Judy is a bright, optimistic police rookie who believes the city's motto of "Anyone Can Be Anything", Nick is a jaded, cynical con-artist whose history led him to believing that one can only be what society thinks they were born to be. It's them being together and learning from each other's point of views that led them to breaking through their many faults (Judy's "acting before thinking" mentality and Nick's cynicism, for example) and grow to become better people. Another big factor is their nature as a predator (Nick) and their natural prey (Judy) and them being able to grow past the stereotypical rivalry between them for a common good (That particular fact being part of the film's overall message of unity is itself another big booster to the ship's popularity).

Despite many fans shipping the two romantically, the actual nature their relationship seems to be more platonic. The film deliberately leaves their relationship ambiguous, leaving it to fan interpretation as to whether they are romantically involved or not.

On Ao3, WildeHopps is the most written ship for Zootopia as a whole, as well as for both Judy and Nick themselves. For specific numbers, it currently beats ship with the second highest number (between two characters only seen in earlier drafts of the film) by a factor of over 20 to 1.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Nick/Judy tag on FanFiction.Net
 * Nick/Judy tag on FanFiction.Net

DEVIANTART
 * Nick/Judy on DeviantArt
 * Nick/Judy on DeviantArt

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * The name of this ship was designated by Rich Moore, one of the directors for Zootopia.