Reylo — Digital fan art of Kylo Ren and Rey kissing in a shadowy forest

Reylo

2015fandom shippingsemi-active

Published September 25, 2026

Reylo is the shipping name for fan fiction, art and speculation about a romance between Star Wars characters Rey and Kylo Ren, sparked by Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver's on-screen chemistry starting with 2015's The Force Awakens. What began as niche FanFiction.net posts before the film even opened grew into one of the loudest fandoms of the sequel trilogy era.

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Overview

Reylo pairs Rey, the scavenger-turned-Jedi, with Kylo Ren, the fallen First Order apprentice also known by his birth name Ben Solo2. Content ranges from soft romantic fan art of the two kissing or holding hands to slow-burn enemies-to-lovers fan fiction that reads their canonical antagonism as unresolved sexual tension. Fans point to the Force-linked telepathic scenes in The Last Jedi, Kylo's line telling Rey she is a nobody 'not to me,' and the shirtless hut scene as the beats that pushed the pairing into mainstream fandom discourse1.

The Star Wars fandom split loudly along Reylo and anti-Reylo lines, with detractors arguing the pairing romanticizes abuse because Kylo tortures and threatens Rey across the trilogy, while supporters frame his arc as a redemption story3. That fight became its own meta-meme, with dueling Urban Dictionary entries capturing shippers gushing over the couple and critics mocking them for glossing over the tree-throwing3.

Origin & Background

Platform
FanFiction.net (origin) / Tumblr, DeviantArt (viral spread)
Date
2015

Kylo Ren and Rey shipping actually predates the movie that put the characters in the same room. LucasFilm announced Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver in the roles in 2014, and on October 4th, 2015, FanFiction.net writer AmazingGraceless posted the earliest documented Reylo fic, titled 'A Drink Called Loneliness,' about two months before Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters2. Once the film opened that December and audiences saw Kylo interrogating Rey and dueling her in the snow, the pairing jumped to visual platforms fast.

How It Spread

By late December 2015, Reylo fan art appeared on both DeviantArt and Tumblr. DeviantArt user l0veyd0vey posted an early Rey and Kylo kiss illustration on December 20th, 2015, that pulled more than 3,700 views over the next two years2. A week later, on December 27th, Tumblr user thealeksdemon posted a Reylo piece that racked up over 5,000 notes. A dedicated fan blog, Reylo Source, launched on January 5th, 2016, with its own kissing illustration that hit 5,800 notes, followed within days by DeviantArt user Ax25's post that cleared 12,000 views2.

The pairing crossed into mainstream press after Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened in December 2017. On December 15th, Adam Driver appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and ended the segment by using Kylo and Rey action figures to act out a scene that finished in a kiss. Days later, on December 19th, Bustle rounded up sixteen Reylo tweets and memes riffing on the Force-connection scenes, the shirtless hut moment, and Kylo's 'not to me' line1. Reylo discourse then ran through the 2019 release of The Rise of Skywalker, which included an on-screen kiss between the two that shippers claimed as canon vindication and critics dismissed as a last-minute concession3.

Timeline

2014

LucasFilm announces Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver as Rey and Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens.

2015-10-04

FanFiction.net writer AmazingGraceless posts 'A Drink Called Loneliness,' the earliest documented Reylo fic.

2015-12-20

DeviantArt user l0veyd0vey posts an early Rey/Kylo kissing illustration that gathers over 3,700 views.

2015-12-27

Tumblr user thealeksdemon posts a Reylo piece that pulls over 5,000 notes.

2016-01-05

The Reylo Source Tumblr blog launches with its first fan art post.

2017-12-15

Adam Driver acts out a Rey/Kylo kissing scene with action figures on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

2017-12-19

Bustle publishes a roundup of sixteen viral Reylo memes and tweets from The Last Jedi.

Frequently Asked Questions