{"id":847852,"date":"2026-08-08T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847852\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:18:13","slug":"heated-rivalry-casts-its-troy-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847852\/","title":{"rendered":"“Heated Rivalry” Casts Its Troy & Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Universal Pictures, Amazon<\/p>\n

Following the first season proving a surprise cultural sensation and critical\/commercial hit, Crave and HBO Max have revealed two key additions to the cast of its ice hockey\/romance drama \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Charlie Gillespie (\u201cJulie and the Phantoms,\u201d \u201cOne Night Only\u201d) has been cast as Troy Barrett, a professional hockey player who is traded to the Ottawa Centaurs and described as a \u201cgrumpy recovering bully\u201d. Meanwhile, Justice Smith (\u201cJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,\u201d \u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\u201d) has been cast as Harris Drover, the team\u2019s extraverted social media manager.<\/p>\n

Both will be secondary lead roles alongside those of returning stars Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander.<\/p>\n

The show is based on Rachel Reid\u2019s \u201cGame Changers\u201d novels, which shifted the focus between various characters. The first season is based primarily on the second novel \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d about Shane & Ilya.<\/p>\n

However, parts of the first novel \u201cGame Changer\u201d about the relationship between hockey player Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and barista Kip Grady (Robbie GK), became the focus of one episode, along with a B plot sprinkled throughout the other episodes (including the famous fifth episode ending).<\/p>\n

The new season is expected to primarily adapt the sixth book, \u201cThe Long Game,\u201d which returns the focus to Shane and Ilya, with the Troy & Harris-centric fifth book, \u201cRole Model,\u201d likely to be the B plot this time.<\/p>\n

Showrunner Jacob Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady say in a release: <\/p>\n

\u201cRachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can\u2019t help but root for. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second season will shift the action primarily to Ottawa where Russian hockey player Ilya has moved to be closer to his now-boyfriend Shane. Now in a committed relationship with one another, they have to learn how to build a life together while hiding their true feelings for one another in public.<\/p>\n

Tierney created, wrote and directed the first season and is returning for the second. Launched in November, the series made near-instant stars of Williams and Storrie and even led to increases in NHL crowd attendance.<\/p>\n

Filming begins later this month for a Spring 2027 release.<\/p>\n

Source: THR<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Pictures, Amazon Following the first season proving a surprise cultural sensation and critical\/commercial hit, Crave and HBO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,142132,134],"class_list":["post-847852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bigslider","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}