Heated Rivalry Casts Harris and Troy with Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie for Season 2

The wide fashionable queer hockey play series, Heated Rivalry, has conscionable added to its formed for Season 2, with Crave announcing the casting of the fan-favorite characters Harris Drover and Troy Barrett successful Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie.

Fans person been discussing their imagination formed for the past 8 months for these 2 circumstantial characters, who are loved crossed the Game Changers publication bid by Rachel Reid, and are the main absorption of publication 5, Role Model.

Smith volition play Harris, the societal media manager for the Ottawa Centaurs hockey team, arsenic good arsenic a agleam airy to everyone astir him. Gillespie volition play Troy, who's a chap hockey subordinate successful the league, on with main characters Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Troy has gone done challenging times arsenic of precocious successful the series, and finds himself astatine a caller squad without galore affable faces.

Photo credit: Bell Media / Crave

“Rachel Reid has fixed america 2 beautifully layered characters successful Harris and Troy who you can’t assistance but basal for,” the show's producers, Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady, said successful a property release. “From the commencement of the casting process, we knew we were looking for actors who could make thing genuinely peculiar unneurotic and bring that aforesaid extent and bosom to the screen. Justice and Charlie bash precisely that. They instantly connected with the vulnerability and resilience astatine the halfway of these characters, bringing an instinctive knowing of who Harris and Troy are.”

Tierney intentionally planned Heated Rivalry with Shane and Ilya being the main characters, but helium wanted to enactment successful different books and characters to the bid arsenic well, since they each intertwine. He did this successful Season 1, Episode 3, with the entirety of the occurrence covering publication 1, Game Changer, featuring Scott Hunter and Kip Grady. Whether Season 2 volition person a akin occurrence with Troy and Harris, oregon if they volition beryllium woven passim the season, is yet to beryllium known.

Heated Rivalry Season 2 volition merchandise successful outpouring 2027 and began accumulation this week, according to assorted formed members showing clips connected societal media that they were gearing up to shoot. This includes Dylan Walsh, who playes Shane's dada successful the series, and revealed that helium believes Season 2 volition dwell of 12 episodes – this has not been confirmed though.

Heated Rivalry smashed records with Season 1, which released November 28, 2025. It rapidly became Crave's apical archetypal amusement of each time, and accrued viewership by 400% connected the platform. Prior to the premiere, HBO Max aquired streaming rights for U.S. audiences, and arsenic of February 2026, Heated Rivalry deed 10.6 cardinal views, with implicit a 100% summation of the assemblage pursuing the finale.

The bid is present streaming successful 130 countries globally and person won a slew of awards, including 16 Canadian Screen Award wins, which acceptable a grounds for "the astir wins by a bid successful a azygous year."

Stay tuned to IGN for much quality and sum of Heated Rivalry arsenic we get person to release!

Jessie Wade is Associate Director of Editorial Programming astatine IGN. You tin find her watching the latest rom-com and play shows, getting mislaid successful mode excessively galore phantasy romance books, and going down large rabbit holes connected YouTube.