Ever since ‘Good Omens‘ shared the first picture of Crowley and Aziraphale for the show fans have been shipping the two characters to be in a relationship. Many readers have long suspected that the demon and angel might be a little more intimately friendly with one another than was spelled out on page and author Neil Gaiman hasn’t confirmed or denied the rumor but has stated that fans who feel this way should “Make fun fan fiction. Enjoy yourself. Make things up. Share them. That’s the point.”

This came up when one of the fans of the series pointed out on Gaiman’s official Tumblr that there was “quite a lot of nastiness floating around Tumblr aimed at people who wish to write fan fic about Crowley having [a] romantic interest in people other than Aziraphale.”

Gaiman’s response isn’t to confirm or deny the rumors one way or another. In fact, it sounds as if he is very specifically vague about the whole situation when he states:

“Canonically, which is to say using the text in the book, you don’t get any description of Crowley’s sex life. The only thing the book says is ‘angels are sexless unless they specifically make an effort. You can infer, and (more to the point) you can imagine, and lots of people have chosen, not unreasonably, to ship him with Aziraphale, but you are still Making Stuff Up. It could be Making Stuff Up that happens between paragraphs, or Making Stuff Up that isn’t mentioned at all, but it’s still Making Stuff Up.”

He went on to share that this type of fan fiction is what he did when adapting the book to screen for “when I needed to take the story into places the book hadn’t covered” which could possibly even mean that something like this might be shown or hinted at in the series but still doesn’t make it canon to the novel. Gaiman actually teased that this very thing could occur in the show as he said:

“The TV series gets deeper into Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship. It’ll be canonical for the TV series, and not canonical for the book.”

To really make things confusing on canon and timeline, Gaiman added a snarky footnote (which fans of the novel should appreciate):

“They don’t contradict each other, but there is territory covered by the TV series that isn’t covered by the book, particularly about Crowley and Aziraphale in bygone years. Also the Present Day in the book is probably the early 1990s, and the Present Day in the TV series is 2019ish, although 11 years ago in the book wasn’t particularly 1978, and 11 years ago on TV is post-ubiquitous cellphones but pre-smartphones.”

With the show debuting in 2018, we won’t have much longer to wait to see how this plays out and I for one am super eager for the show to be released!

As to the idea of putting into fan fiction? Gaiman does have one piece to add saying:

“Which is the fun of fanfiction, and part of the tradition of fanfiction. As is, I’m afraid, grumbling at people who do not see that your ship is the only true ship, and choose to ship anyone else with anyone else. If anyone decides that The Relationships in Their Fanfiction Are the Only True Fanfiction, it seems to me they are missing the point. The point is Fanfiction exists so that you can imagine, enjoy and fill in the gaps. The point is that you can change things and have fun with them. And the stories are absolutely true… for you.”

Do you think that this means on the show we’ll see Crowley and Aziraphale having an intimate relationship? Will this prove that the two actually are gay or just show that they have a deep friendship from being two immortal beings trapped on Earth away from their kind who have learned to love humanity over the angels and demons that they are? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Entertainment Weekly