The Zootopia 2 novel just revealed some romantic scenes between franchise leads Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. The pair of Zootopia Police Department officers lit the fan world ablaze after their appearance in the first Zootopia film. Very quickly, an entire community of fans wishing Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman's characters were just more than friends sprang up online, hoping a potential sequel would confirm their feelings for each other.
While the Zootopia sequel is still several weeks away, it seems the official novelization of the upcoming film has confirmed a spark of romance between Nick and Judy in the movie. In several intimate scenes between the two franchise figureheads are depicted in the book's final few chapters, as they take down blockbuster's secret feline villain.
After saving Nick from the clutches of the film's clawed big bad and curing Goodwin's Judy from some snake venom coursing through her veins, the two share a particularly charged moment that certainly makes it seem something more than friendship is going on.
After previously thinking he was about to lose his bunny-hopping partner, the pair embrace in a moment that will have Zootopia fans raving:
"Nick was so busy hugging Judy, so happy to see her, that he wasn't even remotely uncomfortable around Gary. 'I thought... He told me that you...' Nick started to say. 'I was trying to get to you... and saw you...' Judy said. Their eyes met, and for a moment, they were all that existed. They thought of what very nearly happened, how they had almost lost each other, and all the mistakes each one of them had made."
"No one else in the world matters more to me than you do," Nick tells Judy, as the rest of the world and the journey the two had just been on melt away:
"'Okay, I don't care that we're different,' Nick said. 'I care about you. And I didn't say it, but I should have said it. But I didn't... because, well 'cause I am... an emotionally insecure source of your discomfort who is not good at expressing his feelings, probably because I've been on my own my whole life. It's not an excuse, it's just, it's why instead of telling you that you're the best thing that ever happened to me...no one else in the world matters more to me than you do."
Judy then reciprocates the sentiment, admitting to Nick, "You're my pack," and that he was the "only one in [her] life who ever believed in [her]:"
"I only take what you say personally because you're the only one in my life who ever believed in me, even when I don't even believe in myself. And I should have told you that. And no one else in the world matters to me more than you do, either...And the thought of losing you scares me because... you're my pack."
In the wake of these events, as Nick and Judy have their success announced to Zootopia and its surrounding communities, the pair even go as far as sharing a "love ya, partner" between each other and talking about a "two-week anniversary."
It is worth noting that this is just pulling from the novelization of the movie, so things may play slightly differently or be changed entirely in the final cut of Zootopia 2, perhaps leaning further into a Nick/Judy romance than the book was willing to.
Will Nick and Judy Start Dating After Zootopia 2?
It is hard to deny the chemistry between Nick and Judy in the Zootopia franchise, something that has already been on display in the brief glimpses fans have gotten of Zootopia 2. However, Disney has yet to outright confirm that the pair share romantic feelings for one another.
While these new snippets from the Zootopia 2 novel certainly add to the case in favor of the 'Wildehopps' romance theories fans have had for years, Nick and Judy never officially declare they are dating in the new film.
Zootopia 2 director Byron Howard previously commented on the idea of a potential romance between the two characters, adding fuel to this confusing fire by asking fans, "Can't they just stay best friends?"
This could be the Zootopia creative simply playing coy about the upcoming sequel, knowing it was going to confirm the romance that fans have been craving for the franchise's two main characters, or it could also be him sticking to the pair being best friends and nothing more.
There are certainly moments in the Zootopia 2 novelization that make it seem like Judy and Nick are friends from work with no intimate wrinkles in their relationship. Then again, this moment in which the pair are finally saved in the novel's climax makes it feel as though there may be something else going on (even if they may not know it yet).
Zootopia 2 comes to theaters on November 26, 2025. The new animated film from Disney follows Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, two Zootopia Police Department detectives, as they look into the emergence of a mysterious new snake in the typically mammal-dominated city they help 'protect.' Stars of the first film, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman, return for the sequel, with names like Idris Elba, Ke Huy Quan, Quinta Brunson, and Shakira rounding out its voice cast.
