It has been just six months since the hit Canadian drama Heated Rivalry premiered on HBO Max, but for us dedicated fans desperate for another look at Ilya and Shane’s secretive romance, it’s beginning to feel like years.
Thankfully, the show based on the popular Game Changers book series by author Rachel Reid was already renewed for a second season back in December 2025, with creator, director and writer Jacob Tierney once again at the helm. But that good news does nothing to speed up the debut of the next installment, which only just went into production last week.
So, to whet your appetites in the meantime, we’ve gone ahead and rounded up everything we know about season 2 so far, including the show’s overarching storyline, the new cast members and the ballpark release date. The cottage can’t come soon enough.
Season 2 will adapt ‘The Long Game’ and ‘Role Model’ by author Rachel Reid
The show will continue to follow Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander in its sophomore season, only this time adapting storylines from Reid’s The Long Game, the sixth book in the Game Changers series and one that takes place roughly three years after the events of Heated Rivalry, per Entertainment Weekly. According to the novel’s synopsis, it’s at this point that the star-crossed lovers must grapple with the secretive nature of their relationship and decide “what’s most important—hockey or love.”
“Part of the reason you start off with Heated Rivalry, as far as adapting goes, is because you want to get to The Long Game … because The Long Game is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously,” creator Jacob Tierney said at BookCon in April. “What I’ve always said about this show is there are a lot of books—Game Changer is in Heated Rivalry, and as I think you guys all know by now, obviously parts of Role Model are going to be in [Season 2]— … but Ilya and Shane are the heartbeat of this series, of my show. It’s always going to be about Ilya and Shane.”
Game Changer is actually the first novel in Reid’s series, while Heated Rivalry is the second; Tierney just incorporated pieces of the main storyline from Game Changer into S1 of Heated Rivalry. And in S2, the creator will similarly work in pieces from Role Model, another of Reid’s novels and the fifth in the line-up, this one following “a grumpy hockey player [who] meets his match in a sunny, out-and-proud social media manager,” per a description on Reid’s website.
Fittingly, the cast is expanding
As a result of these new storylines, there will, of course, be some new faces in the mix, as well. On the Role Models front, Canadian singer and actor Charlie Gillespie was recently cast as Troy Barrett, a difficult and troubled hockey player who is traded from the Toronto Guardians to the Ottawa Centaurs, while L.A.-born Justice Smith will play Harris Drover, the Centaurs’ cheery social media manager. (A fun fact: Jack Innanen, the star of FX’s hit comedy Adults was offered a role in S2 of Heated Rivalry, as well, but couldn’t accept due to production conflicts, per Entertainment Weekly.)
“Rachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can’t help but root for,” creator Jacob Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady wrote in a joint statement surrounding the casting.
“From the start of the casting process, we knew we were looking for actors who could create something truly special together and bring that same depth and heart to the screen. Justice and Charlie do exactly that. They immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters, bringing an instinctive understanding of who Harris and Troy are.”
At BookCon, Tierney emphasized that the show will be portraying Troy as “quite damaged.”
“I would say we’re digging into that even harder,” he explained of the character.
S2 will probably be six episodes or less
Speaking with theLos Angeles Times in February of this year, Tierney mentioned that he does not envision himself exceeding six episodes per season, therefore implying that season 2 probably won’t exceed six episodes, either.
“I don’t need to do 10. I would always rather tighten the belt than get loosey-goosey,” Tierney told the outlet. “I would rather be like, ‘Let’s see how much story we can pack into these episodes.’”
A spring 2027 premiere is the goal
In that same piece for the Times, Tierney added that season 2 will not be released until spring 2027 at the earliest.
“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.
Filming has already begun
In early August, lead actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie were spotted out and about in Toronto ahead of season 2 filming, which began sometime during the week of Aug. 3.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
