{"id":391557,"date":"2026-04-22T04:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:40:14","slug":"everything-we-know-so-far-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391557\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything We Know So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere is still a long wait to be had for the highly anticipated second season<\/a> of Heated Rivalry<\/a>.
When Season 1 of the Crave book adaptation of Rachel Reid\u2019s Game Changers series skated quietly ontoHBO Max Nov. 28, 2025, it quickly built momentum and became a phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 2 is in the works while stars Hudson Williams<\/a> and Connor Storrie<\/a> ride the waves of their meteoric rises to fame and book other projects.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor everything we know about Heated Rivalry Season 2, read on:<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen will Heated Rivalry Season 2 come out?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe goal is for Season 2 to air in the spring of 2027, likely April.<\/p>\n

\n\tHas Heated Rivalry Season 2 started production?<\/p>\n

\n\tNot yet, but creator Jacob Tierney told Gayle King on CBS<\/a> that shooting will begin in August once he\u2019s finished writing the second season.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can we expect for the plot of Heated Rivalry Season 2? Will it be based off another one of Rachel Reid\u2019s books?<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 2 of Heated Rivalry will adapt The Long Game, the sixth book in the series by Rachel Reid. Jacob Tierney teased to Deadline in a recent interview<\/a> that he may split that book\u2019s story into two parts, citing \u201ca lot of material\u201d to work with. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Long Game picks back up with Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov after they have been seeing each other for 10 years, keeping their relationship a secret. Ilya wants to go public, but Shane feels that they should keep it under wraps to stay at the top of his game.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Cast Speaks Out About Online Hate: \u201cDon\u2019t Call Yourself A Fan If You Share \u2026 Bigoted Comments Of Any Kind\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Kip (Robbie G.K.) and Scott Hunter (Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud), G.K. told People<\/a> that he would love to see that relationship explored more in Season 2.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe catch Scott and Kip on the very top of the rollercoaster of our storyline, and I think that there\u2019s a whole lot that could be explored after the fact,\u201d G.K. told the publication. \u201cSo I\u2019d like to see some of that.\u201d
Tierney has also teased that The Long Game is \u201can emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously,\u201d thus there are higher stakes for Shane and Ilya.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt really is different, and the challenge, from an adaptation standpoint, is you\u2019re in much more serious territory,\u201d he explained at BookCon 2026, according to\u00a0Entertainment Weekly<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s still lots of flirting, and there\u2019s lots of sex, but it\u2019s this kind of danger. This kind of \u2018hotel room, adolescent sex\u2019 stuff is largely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: London Book Fair Analysis: Industry Hopes \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Effect Will Overcome \u201cDivergence\u201d Between TV, Film & Publishing<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tTierney said that when he first spoke with author Reid about adapting the books focused on Shane and Ilya, he stressed that he wanted to take their relationship seriously and not make it \u201cpulpy and soapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPart of what transfixed me [about their relationship] was knowing where it was going with\u00a0The Long Game. Rachel took them very seriously, and these little tidbits in the first book become real issues for them [later],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat do you do after the rush of danger is gone and yet now you have to live in a relationship where you still aren\u2019t communicating properly, much as you would like to?\u201d added Tierney. \u201cYou can say you love each other, but as adults know, there\u2019s so much more than that to make a relationship successful. And that is what they\u2019re learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere will Heated Rivalry Season 2 be streaming?<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to HBO Max, Indian streamer Lionsgate Play has committed<\/a> to the second season of the beloved ice hockey romance show. Sky in the UK<\/a> will also skate into airing the second season once it comes out.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Creator Explains Why Finale\u2019s Sex Scenes Are His Favorite, Teases Season 2 & Beyond \u201cWill Always Be Centered Around\u201d Shane & Ilya<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tOriginally created by Canada\u2019s Crave, distributor Sphere Abacus sells the show to streamers worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill there be more Heated Rivalry books?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, author Rachel Reid has a seventh book in the works, and it will also focus on Ilya and Shane. Originally planned for publication<\/a> Sept. 29, 2026, the next installment in the series, titled Unrivaled has been pushed back<\/a> to June 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA line has been drawn\u2014and the hockey world is divided. For the first time in their professional hockey careers, Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander have nothing to hide,\u201d the synopsis for Unrivaled reads<\/a>. \u201cAfter more than a decade of keeping their love secret, they\u2019re out, married, and even playing on the same team. The support has been incredible. Most of the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Author Rachel Reid Provides Status Update On New Book: \u201cI Hope I\u2019m Giving People What They Want Out Of This\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tReid\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s symptoms have worsened, making it more difficult to write. She cited this development as needing some more time to work on the book.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more important to me than\u00a0Unrivaled\u00a0being the best book it can possibly be,\u201d she said. \u201cThe writing is going well. I just wanna make a good book, and I need a little bit more time to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAre Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie working on other projects in entertainment?<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, both costars have films in the works, and Storrie recently hosted Saturday Night Live. <\/p>\n

\n\tWilliams is also set to star alongside<\/a> Dylan O\u2019Brien in Sofia Banzhaf\u2019s thriller Apparatus. The darkly comedic thriller marks the feature directorial debut of Banzhaf<\/a>, a Canadian actress\u00a0(I Am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain). Banzhaf cowrote the film with Grayson Moore (Cardinals).<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Star Hudson Williams Skates Onto Connor Storrie\u2019s \u2018SNL\u2019 Debut In Cameo<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tApparatus\u00a0follows struggling young rideshare driver Tyler (Williams) as he falls under the influence of a self-styled entrepreneur, JP (O\u2019Brien), who offers him a future in his handheld-massager business. But what appears to be a dream opportunity unravels as JP pulls Tyler into a violent downward spiral.<\/p>\n

\n\tWilliams also has Yaga, Crave\u2019s debut half-hour series about the myth of Baba Yaga, in the works. He will star alongside \u00a0Carrie-Anne Moss<\/a>\u00a0(The Matrix),\u00a0Noah Reid<\/a>\u00a0(Schitt\u2019s Creek)\u00a0and\u00a0Clark Backo<\/a>\u00a0(Letterkenny).<\/p>\n

\n\tStorrie will star in A24\u2019s Peaked<\/a> alongside Molly Gordon, Allie Levitan and Emma Mackey. Laura Dern<\/a>\u00a0(Is This Thing On?),\u00a0Simone Ashley<\/a>\u00a0(Bridgerton),\u00a0Levon Hawke<\/a>\u00a0(Blink Twice),\u00a0Mitra Jouhari<\/a>\u00a0(The Big Sick), and\u00a0Gabby Windey<\/a>\u00a0(The Traitors) have also joined the cast<\/a> as has Dua Lipa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Creator Jacob Tierney\u00a0Gets Netflix Series Order For Alexander The Great & Aristotle Drama; Jason Bateman\u2019s Aggregate Films Producing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is still a long wait to be had for the highly anticipated second season of Heated Rivalry.When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[114962,156,110172,114961,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-391557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-connor-storrie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-heated-rivalry","11":"tag-hudson-williams","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}