Will there be Heated Rivalry season 2? Um, did Ilya Rozanov come to the cottage? Of course.
If you’re as obsessed as we are with the hot-hockey romance based on Rachel Reid’s steamy novel series, Game Changers, you’ve already binged every episode twice and are eagerly waiting season 2. But when will that be—and how will Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) navigate their relationship now that they're officially “boyfriends” and out to Shane's parents?
Here’s what we know about Heated Rivalry season 2, from the book it’s based on to the confirmed cast. Warning: Spoilers for season 1, episode 1—6, ahead.
Heated Rivalry season 2 has been confirmed
On December 11, HBO Max tapped Storrie and Williams to share the big news via a cute unboxing video. In the Instagram reel, the boys open a wrapped present revealing a hockey puck inside. Williams gasps when he reads what’s on the puck, asking, “Are you allowed to reveal that?”
The answer was yes. “Season 2. Heated Rivalry. Confirmed,” Storrie said, with Williams quipping, “Hotter. Wetter. Longer.” You can watch the flirty clip here.
How many episodes will there be of Heated Rivalry season 2?
It’s possible HR will stick to a six-episode rollout, but Williams’s comment that season 2 will be “Hotter. Wetter. Longer.” has fans convinced we could be getting more than that. “HUDSON SAYING THE SECOND SEASON WILL BE LONGER THANK GOD,” one fan commented, receiving over 8,000 likes.
When will Heated Rivalry season 2 premiere?
Unfortunately, Jacob Tierney has been pretty adamant that season two won't be ready for a Winter 2026 release. Still, he says it won't be a two-year hiatus or anything crazy. "It will not be same time next year, but it'll be pretty soon after that," Tierney told Entertainment Weekly. “It's not gonna be two years. It's not even gonna be 18 months, I don't think. So we're gonna go as fast as we can, while ensuring that we're doing as good a job as we possibly can.”
What happens next?
By the end of episode six, “The Cottage,” Ily and Shane are officially in a relationship and out to Shane's parents. The next step is finding more time to spend together and rewriting the media narrative that they hate each-other. The plan? Ilya leaves Boston to play for a Canadian team closer to Shane. From there, the pair will start a mental health charity together, showing the world that they've left their heated rivalry behind and formed a mutual respect and friendship.
“Maybe one day, when we both retire, we could be together," Shane tells Ilya. "For real.”
So, where do we go next? “Start reading The Long Game if you want to spoil it for yourself,” Storrie said during the renewal announcement video. Tierny has also confirmed in multiple interviews that season two will focus on Shane and Ilya's story from The Long Game.
‘Heated Rivalry’ star Hudson Williams opens up about the cottage scenes that make him cry, relating to Shane Hollander over sudden fame, and witnessing a darker variation of the Scott Hunter kiss.
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Wait, what is The Long Game?
Okay, so Heated Rivalry is the name of the second book in Rachel Reid’s gay-hockey romance series. Like Bridgerton, each story follows different couples, with Heated Rivalry focusing on hockey golden boys Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Their story continues in the sixth book in the series, The Long Game.
Clearly, creator Jacob Tierney knows he has a good thing going with the show’s stars and has decided to lock in on the same pairing. “We’re following Shane and Ilya. That’s not gonna be a shock,” Tierney told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s certainly a possibility we’ll have additional resources, and we can do some things that we would want to do. That would be great, but otherwise I would want to keep it spiritually the same show. We’re off on a road here, we’re in one direction, and I like it.”
While the tone of Heated Rivalry is largely optimistic and joyful, The Long Game reckons with some heavier topics that were touched upon briefly in the first season. (In Glamour's interview with Hudson, for example, he teased that Ilya starts therapy in TLG.)
Tierney says he hasn't started writing the second season and doesn't know how dark things will get. “I do in my head call it Sex Scenes From A Marriage, so it’s definitely heavier,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in December. "I don’t know if I’m going to go quite into Bergman route there, but I think another thing that I told you is that I promised Rachel Reid [I’d] take this seriously."
He continued, “She takes them seriously in the second book. She’s like, ‘This is a real relationship and real relationships come with struggle.’ It’s so compelling. I’m just excited to keep going on this journey with these characters, honestly. I think part of that is there’s definitely an element of sadness to what’s coming, of loneliness and of isolation. Of Ilya learning a lot about himself, and Shane learning a lot about himself too. I’m excited, and I still think at its heart, these books and this show, they want to entertain.”
Want to spoil the series for yourself? Purchase The Long Game here.
Okay, so which cast members are officially returning for season 2?
We know Storrie and Williams will be back as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. In fact, they both signed on for three seasons, should the show be renewed again.
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What about Scott and Kip from Heated Rivalry episode 3?
In episode three, Heated Rivalry panned away from Shane and Ilya’s yearning stage to introduce OG Game Changer couple Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.). For one episode we watched New York Admirals captain Scott fall for a studious guy behind the smoothie counter, kick off a secret romance, and get dumped when Kip realizes he doesn’t want to be a kept a secret. However, by the end of episode five, which takes place a few years later, Scott comes out of the closet by kissing Kip on the ice after winning the Stanley Cup, instantly making a major impact on our two lead boys watching from home.
“I have no idea what my involvement with it is. I’m sure we’ll see more of Scott and Kip,” Arnaud told Glamour of season 2 on December 19. “I heard, like, months ago, before the show even came out, that the producers were interested in a potential spin-off, so who knows? I don’t know if it’s now. I don’t know if it’s season 2. I don’t know if it’s season 3.”
He continued, “I think everyone is so surprised by how the show took off. The plans that they had for the show might have changed because now the show has its own fan base, and that’s not just book-related. So will they stick exactly to the plot lines of the book? It’s no secret that in the books, Scott ends up buying the bar, the Kingfisher Tavern, and then I think develops a close friendship with Ilya. So who knows if that’s going to be part of [Jacob Tierney’s] plan?”
François Arnaud discusses 'Heated Rivalry' episode 5, what may come in season 2, and why he responded to Jordan Firstman's controversial comments about the show.
It’s also not quite clear what happened between Scott and Kip in the three years between episode three and five, as their breakup and public makeup was originally supposed to span six months.
“That changed”, Arnaud explained after the episode aired. “We played it as if it were six months long, and then they realized in the edit [when they were] combining the two storylines that something was off. Not to throw anyone under the bus, but the timeline was always the biggest issue to make all these characters and plot lines intertwine. So we imagined a bunch of different things, like, what happens in between. It certainly doesn’t seem to me when I watch it that they haven’t been in touch at all…”
Honestly, that gap could make for a good flashback moment in season 2—and it’s possible Heated Rivalry plans to sprinkle the other Game Changers couples into the series.
Who are the other Game Changer couples?
Possible spoilers ahead. Here are some other characters we could meet during the next season of Heated Rivalry, though nothing has been confirmed. After all, Tierney previously told THR that he plans to include “some other stuff as well from the other books” in order to “keep the fans happy.” Everyone say, “Thank you, Jacob.”
Ryan Price and Fabian Salah: In the third book, Tough Guy, hockey player Ryan Price is traded to Toronto where he is faced with his high school crush Fabian Salah, who introduces him to the LGBTQ+ scene in Toronto. It should be noted that Ryan was briefly name-checked by Shane and Ilya in episode four of the show’s first season.
Eric Bennett and Kyle Swift: The fourth book, Common Goal, centers around—you guessed it—a veteran goaltender who is ready to finally start dating men when he meets a graduate student going though a recent heartbreak. If you recognize the name Kyle, it’s because Kyle Swift just so happens to be the bartender of Kingfisher Tavern (portrayed by Matthew Finlan), who we meet in Heated Rivalry episode three, as confirmed by Reid and Tierney.
"I'm not being coy about that. That's the same Kyle," Tierney told Entertainment Weekly. “I don't know what his love life looks like. I don't know what that journey's gonna be or when, but that's the same Kyle for sure.”
Troy Barrett and Harris Drover: Book five, Role Model, is for lovers of the grumpy-sunshine trope. After being traded to the worst team in the league amid the fallout from a scandal, Troy is forced to “work on his online presence” with the team’s “out-and-proud” social media manager.
New episodes of Heated Rivalry drop at midnight on Fridays on HBO Max. This post will be updated.