WildeHopps

"You know you love me?" "Do I know that?... Yes, yes I do"

- Nick to Judy; during the final scenes pf Zootopia

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. Upon entering, however, she realizes 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. Outside of the parlor, 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".

The following day, after Judy is given the order by Chief Bogo to solve the recent case of missing mammals within 48 hours or else she'll be fired, she examines the file of one of them - Emmitt Otterton. Though she's told that the file doesn't have leads, Judy sees that Emmitt had bought one of Nick's "pawpsicles" the day he disappeared. Now knowing what the fox is like, Judy manages to find Nick and begin questioning him about Emmitt. Nick initially refuses to cooperate with Judy before starting to brag about what his schemes rake in, unwittingly revealing that he was committing tax evasion. Unfortunately for him, Judy had recorded the accidental confession with the built-in recorder on her carrot pen. With the leverage she needed, Judy gets Nick to help her find Emmitt.

The two end up going around the city looking for clues to Emmitt's whereabouts. Nick starts by leading Judy to where he last saw the otter - the naturist resort Mystic Springs Oasis, with Nick being bemused by Judy's horror the entire time they're there. After finding out that Emmitt left in a limo from the resort and being told the plate number, the two arrive at the Department of Mammal Vehicles to find the company the limo is attached to, although Nick deliberately sabotages the inquiry much to Judy's frustration. With night having fallen by the time they leave, the two finally make it to the car pool in Tundratown where the limo is (which they enter together by Judy tricking Nick into trespassing). However, while investigating the limo, they end up being captured by the crime boss Mr. Big, who nearly has his henchmen "ice" them only for Mr. Big's daughter - Fru Fru - arrives and tells her father that Judy saved her the previous day. Realizing Judy saved his daughter right before her marriage, Mr. Big spares Judy and Nick, forms an alliance with them (much to Nick's confusion), and invites them to the reception. While Nick and Judy are enjoying the reception, Mr. Big reveals to them that Emmitt was his florist and was on his way to him with some information when the otter suddenly went savage and attacked the limo driver en route.

Armed with the location of the driver in the Rainforest District, Judy and Nick arrive at his home and question him about what happened to Emmitt. The driver - Manchas - answers to the best of his ability (cryptically saying "Night Howlers" were involved), but the questioning doesn't get far when he suddenly goes savage and begins chasing Judy and Nick. The two end up separated with Nick cornered and ready to be killed by Manchas, but Judy quickly saves him and catches him by his hand when they fall from the bridge and the two make a very hasty escape. They end up right in front of a ZPD force - one that Judy called for earlier - led by Chief Bogo, who Judy explains everything she discovered so to. Upon finding no sign of Manchas, Bogo loses his patience with Judy and orders her to turn her badge in right now, much to Nick's shock at this unfair treatment. Before she can, Nick intervenes by challenging Bogo's motivations, saying she was being set up for failure and noting that there is still 10 hours left to solve the case. Without a real rebuke, Bogo is forced to let Judy and Nick leave via a nearby gondola.

While riding the gondola, Judy thanks Nick for standing up for her. In return, Nick reveals the incident in his kithood that catalyzed his jaded view on society and his belief that he had to live up to the stereotype of a "shifty fox" in order to survive. Judy responds to this by telling him that he really is more than what others believed and comforted him by putting her paw on his hand, which makes him happy but still a bit uncomfortable about telling her his history. His attempt to change the subject to traffic results in him realizing that the city's traffic cameras may have caught Manchas' disappearance, which Judy is impressed by. The two make it to City Hall and are allowed to look at the camera footage by Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellweather - the sheep that let Judy on the Missing Mammals Case in the first place. They discover that, after they left, Manchas was captured by a pair of wolves (who Judy thinks are the "Night Howlers" Manchas mentioned earlier) and manage to pinpoint their truck to the Cliffside Asylum.

Managing to sneak into the asylum by distracting the wolves guarding the entrance (by Judy inciting a howl), Judy and Nick discover both Manchas and the missing mammals - including Emmitt - all of whom were acting savagely. They further discover that the efforts seems to have been spearheaded by Zootopia's mayor - Leodore Lionheart - who was rounding up savage mammals and trying to keep the whole affair from the public. However, Judy's efforts to record information results in her and Nick being discovered and forced to make a break for it. They manage to escape through the asylum's plumbing and - with the evidence still intact - report it to the ZPD, resulting in a raid on the asylum that ends with Lionheart's arrest as he tries to explain he was trying to keep the city safe.

With the Missing Mammals Case seemingly solved, Judy asks Nick to become her partner officially, which Nick was going to accept, 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 resign from the police force and leave the city, but two months after their separation, she came back looking for Nick once again after realizing the truth behind the savage mammals - that a toxic flower 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 and loyalty for each other is shown first when Nick refuses to leave behind an injured Judy to get the Night Howler evidence to Chief Bogo, despite her insistence and later when 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

FAN ART
 * 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.
 * In a discarded scene from the final film, Judy's parents Stu and Bonnie did actually met Nick, to their shock and and believed him to be Judy's boyfriend after she tells them he's more than a fox, and neither Nick nor Judy denied it, with Nick defending her and convincing her parents to give her a chance to be a real cop after Stu tried to take her back home.