I spent the past day or two binging this amazing show. Spoilers for Season One of Heated Rivalry.
For those completely unaware, Heated Rivalry is based on a book series featuring hot and steamy gay hockey players called Game Changers. Heated Rivalry follows Ilya Rozanov (Conner Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) moving their relationship from rivals on ice, to casual no-stings-attached, to jealous, to them admitting how they feel about each other in Episode 6.
On December 11, HBO posted an Instagram reel featuring Storrie and Williams opening a present. Inside it is a hockey puck with “Heated Rivalry” on one side and “Season 2” on the other. Storrie jokes asking if they were allowed to reveal this, and Williams comments Season 2 will be, “Hotter. Wetter. Longer.”
At the end of Season 1, after Shane came out as gay at his parents house, Ilya and Shane went back to Shane’s cottage and the two came out as a couple. The plan was for Ilya not to renew his contract with the Boston team and move to a Canadian team. The two aimed to start a charity, so the public could see that they moved passed their rivalry and developed a “friendship.” We will probably see more of the two trying to find time with each other. Thankfully, Williams did mention how much longer this next season may be, possibly more than six episodes.
For those who want to know what happens next now, rather than wait, you can read The Long Game. It’s the book following Heated Rivalry, the basis for the plot of the first season. The series by Rachel Reid is akin to Bridgerton, where each book follows a different couple, with some overlap.
No release date has been announced yet. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jacob Tierney, the show’s creator said;
“It will not be same time next year, but it’ll be pretty soon after that. It’s not gonna be two years. It’s not even gonna be 18 months, I don’t think. So we’re gonna go as fast as we can, while ensuring that we’re doing as good a job as we possibly can. There’s only so fast a track to go down when the show is written and directed by one person.
“I haven’t started writing yet. I’m going to. We are aware. We want to get the season out as soon as we can, as well, while also making sure that we give people a good second season. I’m interested to play the dynamic that develops in The Long Game, which is, now that we’ve established we’re together and we’re choosing this, what does that look like to consistently choose through new obstacles, new self-realizations? We’re in the real leagues now, and it’s cool to watch these people that have been in this heightened reality for so long. The other shoe drops that deepens the love, but that also tests some of their personal limits.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting to see what happens next with these two hot hockey boys when this next season comes out.
Image courtesy of social media
