{"id":578108,"date":"2026-08-08T01:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578108\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:26:10","slug":"heated-rivalry-season-2-casts-2-new-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578108\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Season 2 Casts 2 New Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d Season 2<\/a> is expected to continue the love story between Shane and Ilya while introducing another couple to fall for: Harris and Troy.<\/p>\n

Justice Smith will star as Harris Drover, and Charlie Gillespie will play Troy Barrett, joining the cast of Season 2, Canadian streamer Crave announced Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

Smith most recently starred in 2025\u2019s \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d and saw public acclaim for his lead role in 2024\u2019s \u201cI Saw the TV Glow.\u201d Gillespie is best known for his role as a lead singer of a teen boy band in Netflix\u2019s \u201cJulie and the Phantoms\u201d and most recently featured in Will Gluck\u2019s \u201cOne Night Only.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In the casting announcement, Crave also confirmed that Season 2 of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d will air in spring 2027.<\/p>\n

The casting of Troy and Harris also confirms long-running fan theories about where the \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d story will go next. Season 1 was based on Rachel Reid\u2019s \u201cGame Changers\u201d series, which consists of six \u2014 soon to be seven \u2014 novels.<\/p>\n

Season 1 was based on Book 2 of the same name, \u201cHeated Rivalry.\u201d To continue the story of Shane and Ilya, played in the show by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, respectively, the sophomore outing is expected to follow the events of \u201cThe Long Game,\u201d which is technically Book 6 in Reid\u2019s series. <\/p>\n

Two characters who feature prominently in \u201cThe Long Game\u201d are Troy and Harris, who star in their own book, \u201cRole Model\u201d (the fifth \u201cGame Changers\u201d installment). In the book, Troy is a rough-and-tough hockey star who gets traded to one of the worst teams in the league (Ilya\u2019s Ottawa Centaurs) and meets its peppy, out social media manager, Harris. <\/p>\n

Filming for Season 2 is already underway. The official Instagram account for the show issued a statement<\/a> Aug. 4 asking fans not to intrude on film sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you happen to come across one of our filming locations, please give our cast and crew the space they need to do what they do best,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

As the onscreen story of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d continues, so, too, does the book series. Reid is currently at work on a seventh \u201cGame Changers\u201d novel \u2014\u00a0the third about Shane and Ilya \u2014 called \u201cUnrivaled,\u201d<\/a> set to follow the couple as they play on the same professional hockey team for the first time. \u201cUnrivaled\u201d is set for release<\/a> in June 2027.<\/p>\n

Less than a day before the latest casting news, Reid provided a writing update<\/a>, posting a photo of a hefty stack of pages with the caption, \u201cI hope you guys like Ilya and Shane\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n