Heated Rivalry director issues update on season two release – and it’s not good news

Heated Rivalry director Jacob Tierney has shared an update on when fans can expect season two of the queer ice hockey series to arrive, and it’s disappointing news.

While season one of the critically-acclaimed, viral series is still airing – the season finale is set to air on 26 December – the creatives behind the show recently confirmed that it would be coming back for a second season.

Based on the Game Changers novel series by Rachel Reid, which currently features six books, there’s plenty of potential Heated Rivalry plots for Tierney to get his teeth into. Yet speaking to Variety recently, the director confirmed that it’s highly unlikely that viewers will be seeing season two in 2026.

“It can’t be [the] same time next year, because this time last year I’d written five of these [episodes], and this time this year I’ve written zero of them,” Tierney said.

“So it’s going to be a little bit later, but it’s still going to be soon.”

In recent years, high-profile TV series including Euphoria, Stranger Things and Severance have been criticised for taking years-long breaks between seasons – so much so that some of the actors no longer reflect the ages of the characters they are representing.

Tierney is keen to ensure that the gap between season one and two of Heated Rivalry isn’t long enough to cause such issues, but not so short that the quality of the writing and filmmaking is diminished. 

“We understand that everybody’s goal is to not do two years between seasons,” he said.

“And at the same time, I don’t want to put out a rushed sh***y second season just because the show is very popular. But we’re very aware that our creative partners are enthusiastic and don’t want to wait too long. We’re getting back to work.”

It’s understandable that Tierney would want to take his time, considering the dizzying success of the first season. The show, which features Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as rival ice hockey champions and secret lovers Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, has been a mammoth, viral hit and a late contender for one of the biggest shows of 2025.

Over the weekend, season one’s fifth episode – which featured Ilya breaking off his relationship with his girlfriend Rose (Sophie Nélisse) and confessing his love for Hudson in Russian – is the joint highest-rated episode of TV in history, according to IMDb.

The episode, entitled “I’ll Believe in Anything”, has scored a perfect ten out of ten according to the ratings and review site, based on more than 30,000 ratings.

“Ozymandias”, the 14th episode of season five of Breaking Bad shares the gold medal, scoring 10 out of 10 based on more than 270,000 ratings.

Heated Rivalry season one will conclude with its sixth and final episode on 26 December, streaming on Crave in Canada and HBO in the US.

The show’s first season will premiere on Sky in the UK and Ireland from 10 January 2026.

In addition to reams of queer social media users, Heated Rivalry has also secured a legion of high-profile fans in Pedro Pascal, Ayo Edebiri, Orville Peck, and RuPaul’s Drag Race legend Katya.

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