'Heated Rivalry' Found Its New Couple — and Asked Fans to Give the Set Some Room

Two pieces of Heated Rivalry news landed within days of each other. On Tuesday, the production asked fans to keep their distance from its filming locations. On Thursday, it announced the two actors playing season two's new couple.

The casting

Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie are joining season two as Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, playing opposite returning leads Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The season is confirmed for spring 2027, on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the US, and it started shooting in Canada this week.

Harris and Troy come from Role Model, the fifth book in Rachel Reid's Game Changers series — the same shelf of hockey romances the series has been working through since it started. In Reid's telling, Troy is a star player with a bad reputation who gets traded onto Ilya Rozanov's team in Ottawa, and Harris is the guy running that team's social media.

One caveat worth carrying: Crave and HBO Max have not released official character descriptions yet, as Variety noted. Everything anyone can tell you about Harris and Troy today comes from the novel, not the show.

Jacob Tierney, who created the show, and Brendan Brady, one of its executive producers, put out a joint statement with the announcement. “Rachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can't help but root for,” they said, adding that the pair “immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters.”

The casting marks a change in approach. When Williams and Storrie were hired, they were unknowns — both were working as waiters when they booked the parts, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Smith and Gillespie arrive with real resumes: Smith has I Saw the TV Glow, HBO Max's Generation and a role in the Jurassic World franchise behind him, and Gillespie is currently in One Night Only after starring in Netflix's Julie and the Phantoms. Deadline noted the show has again paired one American with one Canadian, the same way it cast Shane and Ilya.

The request

On Tuesday, a message went up on the show's Instagram asking fans to keep their distance from filming. “If 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,” it read, before promising the wait would be worth it and signing off as the Heated Rivalry family. CBC attributed the post to Tierney and reported it also ran on the show's official account.

That followed a run of close encounters. Williams and Storrie were spotted walking through downtown Toronto the weekend before, and a photo of Williams carrying a Canadian Tire reusable bag set off what CBC described as some frenzied shopping trips and an online frenzy over the bag.

The less charming version happened in Paris last month, when Williams was filmed confronting a group that had followed him to where he was staying. CBC described them as alleged autograph-sellers rather than fans. “You guys aren't fans,” Williams says in the video, per CP24. “You're being really creepy, and you just followed me, ok? You don't do this.”

The numbers behind it

The show won a record 16 Canadian Screen Awards; Williams took best lead performer. Storrie, who is American, was not eligible for one, and the series cannot compete at the Emmys because it is produced entirely in Canada. Variety reported season one averaged 10.6 million viewers an episode, with the December 26, 2025 finale up more than 300% on the premiere week's audience. TheWrap reported it broke records on HBO Max without any marketing campaign behind it.

Here is our read, and it is only a read: a gay hockey romance out of Canada, released with no push, became the kind of show whose star gets followed to where he is staying. That is a genuinely new thing for this category, and the request for space is the bill arriving.

Season two adapts The Long Game, Reid's sixth book, alongside Role Model. Tierney has been clear about where the center of gravity stays. “Ilya and Shane are the heartbeat of this series, of my show,” he said at BookCon in April, as TVLine reported. “It's always going to be about Ilya and Shane.”

Reid, meanwhile, has a seventh Game Changers book coming. Unrivaled picks up Shane and Ilya's story again and is due in June 2027.