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14 sci-fi movie and TV couples we can’t help but stan for Valentine’s Day
Love is always in the air, even when you're surrounded by the vacuum of space.
How much do we love certain couples in sci-fi and fantasy media? Let us count the ways! Now that Valentine’s Day has arrived, we can’t help but think about the couples we stan from our favorite genre movies and TV shows.
In a heartfelt commemoration of the amorous date, here are 14 (get it?) sweetheart duos who always speak our love language every time we catch them together onscreen. Are these the only great genre couples out there? No, obviously, but these are some of the greatest of the greats, the relationships that bring love to the faraway galaxies and magical realms we all like to visit.
1. Chucky and Tiffany Valentine (Chucky)
It’s impossible not to stan this killer couple. After all, Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) have been through so much stuff together. They’re among the few romantic paramours we know of who bring a whole extra dimension to the term “body count.” Like a pint-sized plastic pair of Mickey and Mallories, a veritable river of blood — innocent and otherwise — flows between Chucky and his onetime bride, even as Tiffany finds herself hopelessly frustrated by the vindictively disembodied spirit of Charles Lee Ray all over again in SYFY’s Chucky. With a third season of the Don Mancini-created series on the way, can the Good Guy doll live up to his name just once and put the knife down for his old flame’s sake? We’re not counting on it ... but then again, Cupid’s arrows can have a funny effect people (and, perhaps, even dolls).
2. Ben and Addison (Quantum Leap)
They’re together apart ... but they’re definitely mostly together. At least they would be, that is, if Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) and Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett) could ever stay glued to the same dimensional plane. Blame Ben for leaping without giving his betrothed future bride any kind of prior explanation, though as NBC’s revived Quantum Leap series eventually makes clear, love indeed lies at the heart of Ben’s stealthy scientific jump-start. It’s still bittersweet to watch this star-crossed couple cross paths each week: Nothing’s more heartbreaking than going in for that goodbye kiss, only to come up with a mouthful of air as your apparition of a holographic girlfriend fades away.
3. Leia and Han (Star Wars)
"I love you."
"I know."
You can’t have a post about genre couples without talking about Han and Leia. The two, played by Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, are the founding couple for sci-fi and fantasy. Their journey from bickering with each other, to Leia kissing her brother to make Han jealous, to the delightful exchange above where they finally came clean before Han was frozen in carbonite. Yes, we found out they were separated in the recent sequels, but that love never went away.
4. Vision and Wanda (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
We first saw Vision and Wanda (Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively) getting together in Captain America: Civil War when the two were living at Avengers Campus. By Avengers: Infinity War, they are together and initially on the run, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when Wanda is forced to kill Vision and then relive his death when Thanos turns back time and takes the Mind Stone from him.
We really sit with their relationship and Wanda’s grief in WandaVision, however, where Vision delivers the heartwrenching line: “But what is grief if not love preserving?” in a flashback when she was grieving the death of her brother, Pietro. The two had a love for the ages, which makes Wanda's grief all the more heartbreaking.
5. Riker and Troi (Star Trek)
William Riker and Deanna Troi (played by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, respectively) had an on-again off-again relationship for years on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Even when they weren’t romantically involved, however, they were still colleagues and friends.
The two finally got married in Star Trek: Nemesis, and we see them still together on Star Trek: Picard, where they've happily settled into retirement.
6. Stamets and Dr. Culber (Star Trek: Discovery)
A newer Star Trek couple is Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) on Star Trek: Discovery. The two are the first gay couple in the Star Trek universe, something that was well overdue for the franchise.
The two are also a great balance for each other, supporting one another when the other are going through hard times like coming back from the dead or becoming a conduit for the mycelium network that lets the U.S.S. Discovery jump across space.
7. Neo and Trinity (The Matrix)
Neo and Trinity (Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss) have a love that literally changes the world in The Matrix movies. In the most recent Matrix installment, The Matrix Resurrections, they manage to find each other and see each other for who they really are. And when they finally connect, they — together — are able to save the world once again. That’s some real relationship goals right there!
8. Holden and Naomi (The Expanse)
The Expanse had its series finale at the start of 2022, and while the whole crew of the Rocinante (and the rest of humanity, for that matter) went through a lot, one of the most compelling relationships on the show was Holden and Naomi's (Steven Strait and Dominique Tipper, respectively).
The two characters have changed significantly over the course of the show’s six seasons, and while they haven’t always agreed, they always talked out their issues in a healthy, productive way. It’s great to know they still have each other as they head off into space together in the series’ final moments.
9. Admiral Adama and President Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica)
Adama (Edward James Olmos) and Roslin (Mary McDonnell) didn’t get romantically involved with each other until later on in the Battlestar Galactica series. Their relationship is so wonderful in part because they’re both strong characters and leaders in their own right, and they also know how to simply be there for each other. In the series finale, there’s a scene between the two characters that still makes our heart ache, especially when their theme song by Bear McCreary plays over the events.
10. WayHaught (Wynonna Earp)
Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught (Dominique Provost-Chalkley and Katherine Barrell) are one of the major relationships in Wynonna Earp. Like others on the show, the two have had to face literal demons, but in the end they found true happiness with each other. They are the other’s person, and their wedding in last season of the show is one that’s worth celebrating with several re-watches.
11. Jamie and Claire (Outlander)
What’s better than a love that stretches across time?
Jamie and Claire in Outlander, played by Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, respectively, have faced more than a few challenges — such as being separated in time for 20 years until Claire and their daughter head from the 1960s back to late 1700s Scotland where the two reconnect. The challenges don’t stop once they’re back together, however, but the two have each other to rely on and still look pretty darn good while doing it.
12. Aragorn and Arwen (The Lord of the Rings)
Nothing says true love like giving up your immortality to spend time with Viggo Mortenson. Liv Tyler’s Arwen in The Lord of the Rings makes that touching decision for Mortenson’s Aragon, who even though he’s human, is no slouch — he becomes the King of Arnor and Gondor, after all. What makes them such a great, albeit bittersweet couple, however, is that they were also willing to make sacrifices for each other, with Arwen making the biggest sacrifice of all by giving up her immortality.
13. Lady Jessica and Duke Leto (Dune)
In Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) were a powerful couple who loved each other in a world where there wasn’t expected to be much love and devotion between a Duke and his Bene Gesserit mistress. The two, however, had a love that cut through all the political machinations that ultimately tore them apart, and they also had a strong shared love for their son, Paul.
14. Aziraphale and Crowley (Good Omens)
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is a very entertaining and lively story about heaven and hell and a potential apocalypse. The heart of the tale, however, is the relationship between the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley. In Amazon's underrated adaptation of the show, Aziraphale and Crowley are played by Michael Sheen and David Tennant, respectively, and the opening of the first season’s third episode, “Hard Times,” makes it clear that the two have come to love each other over the millennia. And we can’t help but love them back.
If you want to catch some of these couples in action, Battlestar Galactica, and Season 1 of Chucky are now streaming on Peacock.
