Everything we know about Heated Rivalry season 2 as casting news confirmed
Heated Rivalry season two is in the works. (Crave)
Is anyone else still at the cottage? Yeah, us too. The Heated Rivalry hype doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon, even if there’s a wait in store for season two.
After an initial small-time release as a Crave original in November, the super sexy queer ice hockey drama went supernova. It’s now on HBO, the home of The Last of Us and Severance, and reached UK shores in January 2026, on Sky.
Online, the response has been rampant. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who play the red hot rivals in question Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, are now red hot Hollywood property too (in January, they presented at the Golden Globes, and in May they made their Met Gala debuts). Even Robbie GK and François Arnaud, who play side characters (and lovers) Kip Grady and Scott Hunter, have become the internet’s fixation.
Now that season one has wrapped up, it’s time to start dreaming of season two. Here’s everything we know about Heated Rivalry’s upcoming second season.
When is Heated Rivalry season two coming out?
First things first, we know that a second season of Heated Rivalry is on the way; Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams confirmed as such with a sweet viral video back in December. In an interview with Deadline, HBO’s boss Casey Bloys appeared to confirm that season three has been greenlit, too.
As for when season two might arrive, there’s good and bad news. The good news is that we’re not talking A Euphoria or Stranger Things wait time. The bad news is that there will still be a wait.
In December, the show’s director Jacob Tierney confirmed that season two won’t be released in 2026, as he hadn’t even started writing it at the time of season one dropping. He teased that while it would be released “a little bit later,” it is “still going to be soon”.
In a February interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tierney put a time frame on season two, saying that fans can expect it in spring 2027.
“As much as I appreciate how rabid and interested people are at this point, the first season worked because I trusted my gut with this, and I’m going to do that again,” he said.
Season two is currently in production and set to conclude by the end of the year. The release window for Heated Rivalry season two is currently set for around April 2027.
What will Heated Rivalry season two be about?
Heated Rivalry season one ended with Ilya and Shane turning their risqué post-rink rendezvous into something serious during a weekend at Shane’s cottage. While there, they confessed their love for one another and began slowly referring to one another as their boyfriend. While at the cottage, Shane’s father also caught them kissing, leading to them coming out to Shane’s parents.
Heated Rivalry is the second book in author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series, while season two of the show is set to focus on the sixth book: The Long Game.
Released in 2022, The Long Game returns to Shane and Ilya’s love story. While they are still together, the pro sportsmen are still publicly closeted.
“Ten years. That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family… from the league,” reads an official synopsis of the book.
“If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?”
It sounds like season two will tug even harder on the heartstrings than season one.
“I’m interested to play at the dynamic that develops in The Long Game, which is, now that we’ve established we’re together and we’re choosing this, what does that look like to consistently choose through new obstacles, new self-realizations?” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“We’re in the real leagues now, and it’s cool to watch these people that have been in this heightened reality for so long. The other shoe drops that deepens the love, but that also tests some of their personal limits.”
In December, Tierney told Entertainment Weekly that while it won’t “be a shock” for fans to know that season two will focus on Ilya and Shane, there will be other characters thrown into the mix.
In his Los Angeles Times interview, Tierney said that there will be “diversions” into other characters’ plots in season two.
“Just like you can’t tell the story without Scott Hunter, you can’t really tell the story without Troy Barrett,” he said.
Troy Barrett is a character in book five of Reid’s series, Role Model, who didn’t appear in season one of the show. Charlie Gillespie has been cast as pro hockey player Troy, who develops a crush on Ottawa Centaurs’ social media manager, Harris Drover (Justice Smith).
Who will star in Heated Rivalry season two?
Well, if Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are there, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams will be too.
Kip and Scott are also set to return, and thus Robbie GK and François Arnaud will appear in season two.
Likewise, many other important side characters will return from season one. Christina Chang and Dylan Walsh will return as Shane’s parents, Yuna and David. There’s also Sophie Nélisse as Rose, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova as Svetlana, Callan Potter as Hayden, Kamilla Kowal as Jackie, and Benjamin Roy as JJ returning.
Season one included a slight hint at the widening of characters in season two with a brief look at bartender Kyle Swift, played by Matthew Finlan, who has a crush on Kip in Reid’s 2020 book Common Goal.
Also, based on casting, it seems elements from Reid’s books Tough Guy and Role Model will be interwoven.
In Reid’s Tough Guy, defenceman Ryan Price (Daniel Diemer) is the focus as he transfers to the ice hockey team Toronto Guardians and struggles with anxiety. There, he reunites with musician and childhood flame, Fabian Salah (Shaheen Jafargholi).
Other key hockey players have also been cast, including Edvin Ryding as Luca Haas and Robert Naylor as Wyatt Hayes.
There’s also Kevin Zegers joining as the Centaurs’ Coach Wiebe. Meanwhile, Paul Gross is joining as Commissioner Roger Crowell, the head of the National Hockey League and the biggest villain in the romance books.
Season two also bolsters the wider Heated Rivalry world. Off the ice, Sabrina Jalees is playing hockey agent Farah Jalali, Milla Jovovich as Ilya’s therapist Dr Galina Molchalina, Emily Hampshire as Vanessa and also Priyanka as Tarek.
Tierney recently said that while there has certainly been interest in season two from high-profile Hollywood heavyweights, he’s keen to keep the talent Canadian.
“We need Canadian talent, and we love Canadian talent. It’s not a burden, but it’s also something we literally have to do to get our financing,” he said. Plus, casting relative unknowns was part of the charm of season one, and look how that turned out.
What else do we know about Heated Rivalry season two?
Specific details about Heated Rivalry season two remain scarce, but there’s a few things we’ve learnt along the way.
For example, Tierney is pretty keen for the second season to follow a similar format to season one, with just six episodes. “I would always rather tighten the belt than get loosey-goosey… I would rather be like, ‘Let’s see how much story we can pack into these episodes,’” he explained.
Tierney has also confirmed that he will return to direct season two, but will be joined by co-writer Mike Goldbach.
We also know that the second season, like the first, won’t be co-produced by HBO and so won’t be “HBO-ified”.
“This is obviously a very successful creative collaboration between Jacob and Crave. I see no reason why we would be involved creatively,” Bloys said recently.
Furthermore, in September, Bloys revealed that they are going to host “a great premiere in New York in the spring” for the show’s second season.
Speaking about the second season, Bloys stated: “It’s the greatest acquisition in the history of television. I have no doubt in Jacob’s abilities, so I’m eagerly awaiting the episodes.”
Heated Rivalry is streaming now on HBO, Crave and NOW.
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