If you’ve been lying awake at night wondering when Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are coming back to ruin your emotional stability, we have good news: Heated Rivalry Season 2 is officially heading into production this month, and the details are already juicier than a playoff overtime win.
The gay hockey romance that became 2025’s biggest television obsession — based on Rachel Reid’s beloved Game Changers book series — is lacing up its skates for a second season that promises more drama, more romance, more secrets, and yes, more of what made you blush through Season 1. Here’s everything we know so far about filming, casting, and when we’ll finally get new episodes.
The Timeline: Cameras Rolling in August
Mark your calendars (and clear your schedules): Season 2 filming begins August 10, 2026, with production running through December 2, 2026. The series is shooting in Toronto and Montreal, with director and series creator Jacob Tierney back at the helm. Toronto-based fans have already spotted stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams arriving in the city in late July, looking suspiciously like two people who know they’re about to spend four months filming emotionally devastating love scenes together.
The target release window is April 2027 on HBO Max and Canadian streamer Crave, which means we’re looking at roughly eight months of post-production after filming wraps. That’s a lot of time to perfect the lighting on what we can only assume will be several more morally compromising hotel room scenes.
And here’s a rumor that’s been making the rounds on Reddit and fan forums: production insiders have hinted that Seasons 2 and 3 might film back-to-back. Nothing confirmed, but if true, it would mean the wait between Season 2 and Season 3 could be dramatically shorter than the gap between Seasons 1 and 2. Fingers crossed, but maybe don’t hold your breath — this show takes its time, and frankly, it shows in the best way.
The Story: The Long Game Meets Role Model
Season 2 is adapting not one but two books from Rachel Reid’s series: The Long Game (Book 6) and Role Model (Book 5). This is an ambitious choice, and it means we’re getting two love stories for the price of one season. Here’s what Tierney revealed at BookCon in April 2026:
“Long Game is so long and it’s so gamey, like eating venison,” he told attendees. (We’re choosing to interpret that as “rich, complex, and an acquired taste.”) “It really is different, and the challenge, from an adaptation standpoint, is you’re in much more serious territory. There’s still lots of flirting, and there’s lots of sex, but it’s this kind of danger. This kind of ‘hotel room, adolescent sex’ stuff is largely gone.”
Translation: Season 1 was about falling in love. Season 2 is about staying in love — which, as anyone who’s ever been in a relationship can tell you, is the harder part.
The official Season 2 logline from Entertainment Weekly reads: “The Long Game picks up 10 years into their relationship. Shane and Ilya’s love remains a secret, but Ilya has parted ways from his Boston team to play for the Ottawa Centaurs so that he can be closer to Shane. The pair have also launched their charity organization, which they spoke about at the famous cottage. While they are seeing each other more than ever, the potential price of going public with their romance weighs heavily on the couple, especially as Ilya wants them to come out of hiding much sooner than originally planned.”
So: a decade of hiding, a career-changing team swap, a charity to run, and one half of the couple pushing to come out while the other hesitates. What could possibly go wrong?
The Returning Cast: The Boys Are Back
Let’s start with the obvious: Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are returning as Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander. They were spotted together in Toronto in late July, and if the paparazzi photos are any indication, the chemistry hasn’t faded during the hiatus.
Season 1’s supporting cast included François Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Sophie Nélise, and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. Tierney has confirmed that Kip and Scott’s characters will return, since their storylines overlap with Shane and Ilya’s throughout Reid’s books. The rest of the supporting cast is expected to return as well, though official confirmations are still pending.
Williams, for his part, has been vocal about what he wants for Shane in Season 2. In a February 2026 interview with GQ, he said: “I want to see what Shane looks like when he comes into himself and moves away from fear and stifling of his emotions.” Considering Shane spent most of Season 1 doing exactly that — stifling, hiding, flinching — watching him step into his power could be the character arc that breaks us all.
The New Cast: Troy, Harris, and the Rest of the Game Changers Universe
Here’s where things get really interesting. Season 2 is introducing characters from Role Model, and casting calls went out earlier this year for at least eight new characters from across the Game Changers book series. The most anticipated newcomers:
Troy Barrett — A forward on the Ottawa Centaurs and Ilya’s new teammate. In the books, Troy is a deeply damaged man hiding his sexuality, and his romance with the team’s social media manager is the heart of Role Model. Tierney described the Troy/Harris dynamic as “very ‘grumpy sunshine,’ very ‘apple orchard’” but warned: “Troy is a really damaged guy. And Troy is quite damaged on the show. I would say we’re digging into that even harder.”
Harris Drover — The Ottawa Centaurs’ social media manager and Troy’s love interest. The character is described in casting calls as having “implied sex, nudity and kissing” — so yes, we’re getting another queer romance with actual on-screen intimacy, and yes, you’re welcome.
Beyond Troy and Harris, casting calls also went out for Ryan and Fabian (from Tough Guy, Book 4) and Eric (from Common Goal, Book 3). All three roles include the same “implied sex, nudity and kissing” note, which tells us that Season 2 is going to be… generously populated in the romance department. The Game Changers universe is expanding, and it’s bringing its whole roster.
The Casting Drama: Justice Smith In, Jack Innanen Out
Now for the tea. Actor Justice Smith — known for Jurassic World, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, and All the Bright Places — is reportedly joining the Season 2 cast as Harris Drover, according to a DeuxMoi leak that’s been making the rounds. Neither HBO Max nor Smith’s team has officially confirmed the casting, but the rumor has enough traction that multiple outlets are running with it, and frankly, Smith has the exact energy a character like Harris needs: warm, slightly awkward, charmingly earnest. We’re here for it.
But the casting news isn’t all celebration. Canadian actor Jack Innanen (Adults) was reportedly offered the role of Troy Barrett — a fan-favorite casting that had the show’s fandom buzzing — but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts. Entertainment Weekly confirmed the news exclusively, and it’s a genuine loss. Innanen had been quietly campaigning for the role, and the fact that production wanted him says a lot about his fit for the character. Troy Barrett remains uncast publicly, and the question of who will play Ilya’s damaged, complicated new teammate is one of the biggest open mysteries heading into August production.
The lesson, as always: in Hollywood, scheduling conflicts are the third lead in every casting story.
What the Creator Says
Tierney has been consistently thoughtful about what Season 2 needs to be, and his interviews paint a picture of a showrunner who’s treating the material with deep respect — both for Reid’s books and for the queer relationship at the center of them.
“I want to dig deeper,” he said at BookCon. “Because everything in her book, there is the foundation of a very real and understandable queer relationship. And I didn’t want to shy away from it. I wanted to dig into it.”
Speaking to Variety after the Season 1 finale, he added: “The journey of this show, no matter how long it goes on for, will always be centered around the relationship between Shane and Ilya. Sex will always be a big part of it, like it is with any romantic relationship. But it’s really about continuing that progress of what happens after that first blush of love, what happens after you decide you’re in love and how do you sustain it?”
He continued: “That’s a very adult question: ‘We love each other, and now what? Does that mean everything’s easy?’ No, it does not.”
And in what might be the most reassuring quote for fans anxious about the wait, executive producer Brendan Brady said on CBS Mornings: “Like the best parts of this show, fans should enjoy the yearn.”
Enjoy the yearn. Could there be a more perfect instruction for a Heated Rivalry fan? We’ve been yearning since the Season 1 finale. We can hold on a little longer.
The Bonus: Miley Cyrus Wants In
Because no cultural phenomenon is complete without a random celebrity endorsement, Miley Cyrus told Variety at the Palm Springs International Film Festival that she’d love to contribute music to Season 2: “Oh, I’m so in [to do music]. Book me. Get me booked!”
François Arnaud, when asked about Cyrus’s interest at the Critics Choice Awards, responded with admirable honesty: “I think we might get a little bit bigger budget for season 2, but I don’t know if we get Miley budget. I think if she sees the show, she might give us a discount.”
So: Miley Cyrus is campaigning for a spot on the Season 2 soundtrack, and the cast is already doing the math on whether they can afford her. If the Season 1 needle drops were any indication, the music supervision on this show is already impeccable — and a Miley track during a Shane-and-Ilya montage might be the pop culture moment that breaks the internet.
The Bottom Line
Heated Rivalry Season 2 is happening. It’s filming from August through December 2026, targeting an April 2027 release. It’s adapting two books — The Long Game and Role Model — which means we’re getting new characters, new romances, and a deepening of the Shane-and-Ilya story that made us all fall in love (and then fall apart emotionally) in Season 1.
The returning cast is locked. New cast members are being announced. Justice Smith is probably in. Jack Innanen is unfortunately out. Troy Barrett is still a mystery. And somewhere in Toronto, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are learning their lines, preparing to break our hearts all over again.
See you in April 2027. Bring tissues.
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