Will there be a season two of ‘Heated Rivalry’?

Heated Rivalry caused a sensation with its first season, but can fans expect to see it return for a second run? Find out below. 

The Canadian queer sports romance debuted on the Crave network November 28 in North America, and eventually arrived in the UK on Sky and NOW TV, with the full six-episode run streaming now. 

It was created, written and directed by Jacob Tierney, previously known for the sitcom Letterkenny, and is based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series of novels. 

It follows two rival professional ice hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), whose on-ice animosity conceals a passionate, secret romance. 

Check out the trailer here: 

The show was a breakout hit, earning widespread critical acclaim, sitting on a 96 per cent critics rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It initially aired on the Canadian streaming service Crave, before being picked up by HBO, and it quickly became HBO Max’s top debut for an acquired, non-animated titled since the platform launched in 2019.  

Stars Williams and Francois Arnaud recently hit back at viewers who have been posting hateful comments on social media, sharing a joint statement in which they said, “none of us need your hateful ‘love’.” 

Will there be a season two of Heated Rivalry?

Given the runaway success of the show’s first run, it is no surprise that the second season has already been commissioned. 

Creator Jacob Tierney has confirmed that shooting will begin in August once he has finished writing the new episodes, and while it is too early to be sure of a release schedule, the goal is reportedly for the second season to air in the spring of 2027, likely April. 

The second season will adapt The Long Game, the sixth book in Rachel Reid’s series, although Tierney recently told Deadline that he is considering splitting that book into two separate seasons, arguing that it provides “a lot of material” to work with. 

In The Long Game, the two central characters are still seeing each other a full decade later, but the relationship remains a secret. The drama revolves around tension between them as they wrestle with the possibility of going public, while they both try to stay on top of their careers as elite hockey players. 

Speaking about the next season, Tierney has said: “Part of what transfixed me [about their relationship] was knowing where it was going with The Long Game. Rachel took them very seriously, and these little tidbits in the first book become real issues for them [later].”  

“What do you do after the rush of danger is gone and yet now you have to live in a relationship where you still aren’t communicating properly, much as you would like to?” he continued. “You can say you love each other, but as adults know, there’s so much more than that to make a relationship successful. And that is what they’re learning.”