Adjacent Ship

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	Adjacent Pairing, Derivative Ship, Actor-Based Crossover Pairing
Related tropes/genres	Same-Actor Crossover
Related articles on Fanlore.

An Adjacent Ship takes the actors who portray the characters in a popular ship, and pairs other characters played by those same actors. The characters paired in an adjacent ship are very rarely from the same source material/fandom and are therefore a crossover ship.

This term arose in the Star Wars sequel trilogy fandom, where characters in the popular (and controversial) ship Kylux were portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson and Adam Driver. Following Adam Driver's appearance on SNL as Matt the Radar Technician, fanfiction featuring Matt appeared and began pairing him with Clan Techie, Gleeson's character from Dredd. This ship was only the first Kylux adjacent pairing. Clyde Logan/Stensland is another very popular Kylux adjacent ship, but there are many others. While there is some ship integrity (such as Matt being commonly paired with Techie, called Techienician), it's also common for the characters to be shipped with other adjacents, and even the main pairing (Kylux).

On Ao3 Kylux writers tagged their works with all fandoms involved, including the original Star Wars fandom. They also commonly added relationship tags for Kylux and the adjacent ship, and refer to these works as Kylux Adjacent in freeform tags. The term "adjacent" has spread to at least a few other fandoms, where writers are tagging their works in the same way. For example, see DinCobb Adjacent (The Mandalorian), Supernatural adjacent (Supernatural), and Immortal Husbands Adjacent and Joe x Nicky adjacent (The Old Guard). Ao3 tag wranglers canonize adjacent ship tags as Character Combinations.

The same or similar phenomena exist in many other fandoms, but the terminology varies. See Actor-based crossover pairings.

Example Pairings

This is a list of pairings where adjacent ships appear (and that fandom uses the term adjacent pairings/ships):

• Kylo Ren/Hux, a very popular slash pairing from Star Wars sequel trilogy (This fandom uses the term Kylux Adjacent)
  • Gabriel O'Malley (The Kitchen)/Flip Zimmerman (BlacKkKlansman)
  • Clan Techie (Dredd)/Matt the Radar Technician (SNL Skit)
  • Clyde Logan (Logan Lucky)/Stensland (Crash Pad)
  • Phillip Altman (This Is Where I Leave You)/Thomas McGregor (Peter Rabbit)
• Joe/Nicky, the dominant pairing in The Old Guard fandom and another slash pairing (See The Great Kenzarelli Multiverse)
• Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham, the dominant pairing in Hannibal fandom (See Hannibal Extended Universe)
• Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, the most popular X-men pairing (there's no set name, though Cherik Adjacent has been used)
  • Wesley Gibson (Wanted)/Brandon Sullivan (Shame)
  • Bruce Robertson (Filth)/Brandon Sullivan (Shame)

Example Fanworks

• An Avenue By Any Other Name by ktula, featuring the paring Gabriel O'Malley/Flip Zimmerman, Flip Zimmerman knows Gabriel O’Malley from way back—an undercover case he’d botched for reasons he still can’t quite figure out. But that was three years ago. Now, Flip’s career is more or less back on track, and he doesn’t think about the sawmill thing at all. But when Gabriel O’Malley calls, it throws Flip’s life for a loop. And it’s worse now, because Gabriel’s got a stolen* baby with him. (2020)
• Folie à Deux by hllfire and InsertSthMeaningful, series featuring the paring Bruce Robertson/Brandon Sullivan, With the coming of the New Year, Brandon wants some time away from Sissy so he can have some peace. Unfortunately, what he finds is very far from it. (2021)
• Misfits by hollycomb, featuring the first Kylux Adjacent paring Clan Techie/Matt the Radar Technician, Matt (short temper, disturbing fixation on Kylo Ren, snores) and Techie (night terrors, excessive jumpiness, "creepy" eyes) have both become notorious for driving their bunkmates to request a room change. General Hux is tired of processing the admin work they create. He assigns them to bunk together. They’ll either deal with it or lose their jobs. (2016)
• Reprieve by Cesare, helens78, featuring the pairing Wesley Gibson/Brandon Sullivan, Sometimes Brandon feels like he hired Wesley, and somehow made himself forget. It would explain a lot. Even the things Wesley does that Brandon hates, he craves, he gets off on. Sometimes it's almost like Brandon dreamed him. (2011)
• The Tale of Thomas McGregor by MoonwalkingCrab, Phillip Altman/Thomas McGregor, Thomas is stressed, he doesn't like that; it throws off his routine. Luckily, he also has a routine specifically to combat stress. It involves his toys. (2018)
• Where You Lead by MoonwalkingCrab, featuring the pairing Clyde Logan/Stensland, It starts out as a regular night at the bar Clyde tends, but when a forlorn slip of a man called Stensland comes in for a drink and some company, he finds himself taken. A few too many of those drinks and Stensland ends up at Clyde’s. It’s a sleepy, quiet night, but in the morning, Stensland gets the company he didn’t know he wanted. (2018)

Archives, Links & Resources

• Kylux Adjacents Map by Marie
• Adam Driver/Domhnall Gleeson Character Combinations works on Ao3 (Kylux Adjacent is synned to this tag)
• Marwan Kenzari/Luca Marinelli Character Combinations works on Ao3
• Kylux Adjacents Month on Tumblr