Warning: This post contains spoilers for Heated Rivalry Season 1.
Like a puck zipping into a net at warp speed as the home crowd roars, Heated Rivalry has quickly and fiercely become one of the biggest surprise hits in recent memory.
The steamy hockey romance, produced by Canadian streaming network Crave and distributed in the U.S. by HBO Max, has become a bona fide phenomenon since its premiere in late November, launching into the top five scripted debuts on the platform in 2025. The show and its publicity tour have dominated social media feeds, group text chats, and even made their way into the conversation on Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper’s New Year’s Eve broadcast. (“It’s all I can think about,” performer Brandi Carlisle conceded when asked about it by the hosts.)
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Based on a series of novels by Rachel Reid and created by Jacob Tierney for the small screen, Heated Rivalry follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two professional hockey players who play for rival teams and become engaged in a secret, yearslong sexual relationship that evolves into a deeper romance.
Fans have gone all in on the show, its two leads have become overnight stars, and much has been written about why it’s resonating with people. Clearly, the first season’s six episodes aren’t enough to keep viewers satisfied. With a second season now officially in the works, here’s everything we know about what could be in store.
Has Heated Rivalry been renewed for Season 2?
Yes, Shane and Ilya will be hitting the ice again. Crave and HBO Max both announced on Dec. 12 that Heated Rivalry will return for a second season. HBO shared a video on Instagram featuring Williams and Storrie to break the news with a caption that teased, “The game’s not over.”
“Watching our show become an international phenomenon has been extraordinary,” Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady said in a statement released by Crave’s parent company, Bell Media. “We’re profoundly grateful to everyone that has been on this journey with us. Being renewed for a second season so early is a true honour, and we can’t wait to bring you even more of what you love.”
What will Heated Rivalry Season 2 be about?
Season 1 ends with Shane and Ilya confessing their love for one another during their idyllic stay at Shane’s cottage and beginning to think about what their future could look like together. This includes formulating a plan for Ilya to leave Boston and play for Ottawa, putting him closer geographically to Shane and giving them cover to start a charity together as a way to ease the public into viewing them as more than just bitter rivals on the ice.
Season 2 plot details are still under wraps as of now, but the next installment will draw from The Long Game, the sixth book in Reid’s series, which focuses on the next chapter in Shane and Ilya’s relationship. “Start reading The Long Game if you want to spoil it for yourselves,” Storrie joked in that Season 2 renewal video.
Without getting deep into book spoilers, an official synopsis for the novel teases that after 10 years of being together and keeping their relationship a secret from the league and larger public, it’s “time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love.”
“I’m interested to play at 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?” Tierney told Entertainment Weekly. “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.”
Season 1 adapted the first two books in Reid’s series, Game Changer—which focused on veteran hockey star Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and smoothie barista Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.)—and Heated Rivalry, which is Shane and Ilya’s story. The characters overlapped in those novels, and they continue to pop up in subsequent books. So it would not be surprising to see more of Scott and Kip when the show returns. “Not that we weren’t expecting it, but I think we’re all surprised at how popular Scott and Kip were. So now it’s, ‘OK, how do you get more Scott and Kip?’” the author told Variety.
Reid also mentioned her book Role Model, which follows gruff hockey pro Troy Barrett after he gets traded to Ottawa on the heels of a scandal, noting that its plot “kind of overlaps” with The Long Game. “I’m hoping that we’ll get both stories told at the same time,” she said in that same interview. “I don’t think there’s another way you could do it.”
Finally, it’s worth noting that Scott and Kip show up in Common Goal, which follows Kyle Swift, the bartender at Kip’s favorite local dive, the Kingfisher, as he strikes up a relationship with New York Admirals goalie Eric Bennett. And the main character of Tough Guy, Ryan Price, was briefly referenced by Shane and Ilya in Season 1. So, to paraphrase Storrie, maybe start reading those too if you want to get ahead.
Who’s returning for Heated Rivalry Season 2?
Nothing has been announced officially yet, but Storrie and Williams will obviously be back. (GQ reported that the duo are under contract for three seasons.) Williams gave a little teaser for what fans can expect during an appearance on The Tonight Show, saying, “There are some meanies. There are some big baddies. If Season 1 is an internal battle, Season 2 is more of an external battle.”
And while it’s not confirmation of anything, Arnaud has already given thought to what he’d like to see happen after Scott publicly came out by kissing Kip on the ice after winning the championship in Episode 5.
“I think for Season 2, if we are in it,” he said on the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards, “I would want them to face the continuing challenges of bringing [their relationship] into real life—for someone who’s uber-famous to be with someone who didn’t choose that for his life and is forced into it.”
In an interview with Variety, Tierney also hinted at some new and old faces we might get to see going forward. “There’s more a sense of getting to know that team in Ottawa that Ilya is going to play for and getting to know [Shane’s teammate] Hayden and [his wife] Jackie more,” he explained. “And there’s more [of Shane’s parents,] Yuna and David. Hopefully what will happen, like with any good second season in general, is that we will get to enrich the stuff you already know and how those threads began, and then pull on them and really get into it.”
How many episodes will Heated Rivalry Season 2 be?
Season 1 was six episodes, and Tierney has implied that Season 2 might be the same. “I don’t know if you’re going to get [more than] that,” he told Gold Derby. “But you’re going to get a lot of content. Everyone’s pretty committed to this universe, in this world. So it’s going to be OK. It’s going to be good.”
When will Heated Rivalry Season 2 be released?
If you’re mentally still at the cottage following the season finale, expect to be there for a bit. As of December 2025, when the Season 1 finale aired, Tierney hadn’t begun writing scripts for the new season yet, but he doesn’t expect fans to have to wait too long to return to the world of Heated Rivalry.
“It will not be same time next year, but it’ll be pretty soon after that,” he told EW. “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.”
Will we see the Heated Rivalry stars anywhere else in the meantime?
Season 1 of Heated Rivalry is continuing to roll out in other countries around the world, and the cast has been supporting the show with TV interviews (Williams made his late-night debut on The Tonight Show on Jan. 8, while Storrie is set to appear Jan. 12 on Late Night With Seth Meyers); awards-show stops (Storrie helped read off the nominees for the Actor Awards, and both actors are presenting on Jan. 11 at the Golden Globes); and appearances on what’s already been a delightful press tour. (You can watch them read fan tweets, do a blind taste-test of ginger ale, or read an excerpt from Heated Rivalry.)
The two actors also recorded a three-episode original romantasy story for the audio erotica app Quinn, playing rivals once again—but this time they’re fae princes from opposing kingdoms who have a forbidden affair.
And, of course, they’re always there in your HBO Max queue if you’re watching the show from the beginning (again) while you wait for more.