Heated Rivalry


Heated Rivalry is a Canadian sports romance television series created, written, and directed by Jacob Tierney for Crave. Based on the Game Changers novel series by Rachel Reid, it follows two rival professional hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov, whose on-ice animosity conceals a passionate, secret romance. It also stars François Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Sophie Nélisse, and Dylan Walsh.
The series had its preview screening at the Image+Nation LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on November 23, 2025. The first season then premiered online on Crave on November 28, 2025, and was picked up for streaming on HBO Max in selected territories; Neon in New Zealand; and Movistar Plus+ in Spain.
Heated Rivalry received critical acclaim, with praise for the directing, writing, and the lead actors' performances and chemistry. It also achieved high audience viewership, becoming Crave's most-watched original series to date and HBO Max's top debut for an acquired, non-animated title since the platform's launch in 2019. The series has been described by media outlets as a global sensation and a break-out critical hit. In December 2025, it was renewed for a second season.

Premise

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are two professional ice hockey players who compete on rival teams, the Montreal Metros and the Boston Raiders, respectively. Although their on-ice rivalry is amplified by media coverage and public perception, the two develop a private, initially casual sexual relationship that continues intermittently over several years as they pursue their hockey careers.

Cast and characters

Main

Featured

  • Trevor Hayes as Boston General Manager
  • Kaden Connors as Sasha, Ilya's former sexual partner and the son of Ilya's former coach
  • Harrison Browne as Connors, Ilya's teammate
  • Devante Senior as Miles, Rose's friend and co-star

    Recurring

  • Arthur Moukhortov as Sorren Miitka, Shane's teammate and the Metros' goaltender
  • Vitali Makarov as Sergei Vetrov, the Russian Minister of Interior, former Soviet goaltender and Svetlana's father

    Guest

  • Aidan Shaw as Kolya Andropov, Shane's teammate
  • Wayne Ward as Tom
  • Billie Mary Silas and Sam Nicole Silas as Ruby and Emma Pike, Hayden and Jackie's daughters
  • Foster Blake as Maxime, the bartender at Le Tambour
  • Tyrone Edwards as himself
  • Lainey Lui as herself

    Episodes

Production

Development

Heated Rivalry is based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers novel series, with the second novel, Heated Rivalry, providing the series' title. Reid drew inspiration from the real-life rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin for the book. She also cited Jaromír Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk as other inspirations for the character of Ilya Rozanov, as well as Wayne Gretzky and Paul Kariya for the character of Shane Hollander.
Jacob Tierney first reached out to Reid on August 7, 2023, a day after The Washington Post ran an article about hockey romance novels. He had listened to the Game Changers series on audio book and wanted to discuss the possibility of adapting them to a limited television series. Tierney initially had doubts about whether the story could be adapted while retaining the books' sexually explicit content. Though queer romances such as the young adult adaptation Heartstopper had risen in popularity, Tierney said "the thing that is so fundamentally different in Heated Rivalry is sex. And so I was like 'okay, will anyone want this with that?' And the thing that was very obvious to me is that they were inseparable. Sex is character development; it's not just a random sex scene in every episode. learn about each other and they learn about themselves through this". When meeting with potential financiers for the show, Tierney and co-producer Brendan Brady said they were met with studio notes that wanted to "fundamentally change the story, or fundamentally change the tone".
In January 2025, it was first announced that Crave picked up the show off a spec script by Tierney. This was confirmed by Reid on her blog. In March 2025, a month before production began, UK-based distributor Sphere Abacus stepped in to finance alongside Crave and Bell Media, ensuring that Tierney's vision for the show remained intact. In June 2025, it was officially announced at the Bell Media Upfront that the series would be streamed on Crave. Tierney created, wrote, and directed the series. He also serves as an executive producer alongside Brendan Brady through their production banner Accent Aigu Entertainment. Lori Fischburg is a producer of the series, and Reid is a consulting producer.
Tierney's creative executive at Crave, Rachel Goldstein, discouraged him from adapting Heated Rivalrys epilogue into the series, as it could have been perceived as setting up a second season that had not been confirmed at the time. On December 12, 2025, it was announced that the series has been renewed for a second season by Crave, with HBO Max returning as a key distribution partner. The renewal follows strong viewer interest and streaming performance during the first season's rollout. The agreement also includes expanded distribution deals, with rights for season two secured across multiple international markets via Warner Bros. Discovery's distribution arm and other partners. It is set to adapt The Long Game, the sixth book of the Game Changers series, which serves as a sequel to Heated Rivalry. However, ten days later, Tierney told Variety that the second season would not premiere at the same time the following year, citing slower progress on the episode scripts. He also told The Hollywood Reporter that, although he would direct all episodes of the second season, it is a possibility that "other writers will come in to help out".

Casting

and Connor Storrie lead the cast as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, respectively, alongside François Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Sophie Nélisse and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. Williams and Storrie signed on for three seasons. Both actors were working as restaurant waiters prior to being cast. Tierney said it was essential to him that he found two actors who had the "physicality of hockey players" who were also comfortable with nudity and intimacy. He also wanted to find them together since "the show lives and dies on their relationship". And also said that Williams and Storrie had a chemistry that was obvious from the first read, even though it was over Zoom.
Storrie revealed he had auditioned for the role shirtless, even though that had not been required. Williams was the third actor he had a chemistry read with, while Williams read with one other possible actor. When Tierney asked Storrie about his impression, he suggested Williams. Similarly, Williams felt an "inexplicable X-factor" about Storrie, telling Tierney: "The other guy was good, but Connor felt like he was going to pin me down and fuck me". In a December 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams stated that he portrayed the character of Shane as autistic after receiving confirmation from Reid that the character was on the autism spectrum. He cited his own father, who is on the spectrum as well, as an inspiration.
Arnaud, a long time friend of Tierney, received a call from him personally, asking him if he had received the script yet and telling him: "I didn't write this for you, but I cannot hear anyone else's voice in my head when I read it". Arnaud was surprised, perceiving the script as soft pornography, but changed his mind after understanding how the sex scenes are used to drive the story forward. Chang initially shared Arnaud's sentiment, recalling that while reading the scripts she thought, "Is this soft core porn? What's happening? It's hot. What the heck is happening right now? This is amazing. It's like Fifty Shades of... Oh, my God!" Kharlamova, whose role was substantially redefined for the television adaptation, stated that she approached the character with the intention of challenging stereotypical portrayals of Russians in Western media, noting that Russia has "around 200 different ethnic groups" and is "such a big country with so many different cultural influences", adding that she was "very happy to show a different side".

Filming

for the first season commenced in April 2025, with filming taking place across the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec for 36 days. The first day of shooting included Shane and Ilya's Las Vegas hotel room encounter, while the hockey rink scenes were completed over a week of filming near the end of the shoot. In Ontario, locations included Toronto and Hamilton, with Dundurn Castle in Hamilton used as a stand-in for Moscow during a jogging scene involving Ilya in the episode "Olympians", and the outdoor of the McMaster Burridge Gym serving as the setting for Ilya and Shane's first meeting in the opening of the episode "Rookies". Additional filming in Hamilton took place at FirstOntario Concert Hall, which was used for the Los Angeles party sequence during the MLH draft.
All hockey sequences, including locker rooms, ice surface, and stands were filmed at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph. A cast of real-life hockey players were used to fill out the team, while body doubles were cast for close-up shots of the lead actors in action on the ice. Williams was doubled by Jonah De Simone, while Storrie was doubled by Ralph Taggart. De Simone says he suggested the groin stretch that Hollander does in one episode and that Williams would later demonstrated on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The first-season finale was filmed in Muskoka. Several Montreal landmarks are featured in establishing shots, including Windsor Station, St. George's Anglican Church, Montreal Biosphere and Parc Jean-Drapeau. Additionally, the Montreal skyline is visible from Shane's high-rise apartment and a framed picture of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal can be seen on the bathroom wall of Ilya's Montreal hotel room in episode "Rose". There are also a number of Montreal-specific references, including Mile End, McGill University and Rose Landry's St-Viateur Bagel shirt. According to Playback, studio production shooting occurred in Toronto at Dark Slope on a practical soundstage as well as on an LED volume soundstage using virtual production for specified shots.
Heated Rivalry was filmed out of order, which Tierney described as "one giant five-hour movie". The series' numerous sex scenes, which contributed to its notoriety and critical attention, were overseen by intimacy coordinator Chala Hunter, and the absence of frontal nudity was a decision made entirely by Tierney. While the scenes were heavily choreographed, Hunter allowed what she described as "artistic interpretation". The Las Vegas sex scene in the episode "Olympians" was filmed on the first day of production. Williams later stated that he chose not to use protective padding during its filming, resulting in stomach pain. He also expressed dissatisfaction with his physical appearance in that scene. The conversation between Shane and Ilya in a Tampa hotel in the episode "I'll Believe in Anything" was also filmed on the first day of production; the scene served as one of Williams and Storrie's audition scenes. The episode also features Storrie delivering a four-page monologue in Russian; after a particularly strong take, Tierney asked Storrie's dialect coach, Kate Yablunovsky, how much of it could be used, to which she replied, "All of it. He humbles me". The episode "The Cottage" was filmed during the final two days of production. A scene in which Ilya performs oral sex on Shane while the latter is on the phone with Hayden was partially improvised. Hunter noted that Storrie improvised a beat "so unexpected she had to step away from the monitors". The final scene filmed during production depicts Ilya telling Shane about his late mother while lying in Shane's lap.
According to Storrie, Williams and Chang, filming of the second season is expected to begin in the summer or fall of 2026.