Heated Rivalry season 2 is officially on its way, and the world around Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov is getting significantly bigger.
Filming is under way in Canada, the cast continues to expand and UK viewers already have a release window: the queer hockey drama will return to Sky and NOW in spring 2027.
After the first season turned Rachel Reid’s hockey romance into one of queer television’s most talked-about new series, season two will continue the complicated relationship between Shane, played by Hudson Williams, and Ilya, played by Connor Storrie.
When will Heated Rivalry season 2 be released?
There is no exact UK premiere date yet, but Sky has officially confirmed that Heated Rivalry season 2 will arrive on Sky and NOW in spring 2027 in the UK and Ireland. Production is currently taking place in Canada.
The next chapter draws heavily from Rachel Reid’s The Long Game, which returns to Shane and Ilya as they try to balance professional hockey with a relationship they have kept private for years.
In other words: falling in love was complicated. Staying together while the world is watching might be even harder.
Who is joining the Heated Rivalry season 2 cast?
Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie remain at the heart of the show, but season two is rapidly turning into a much larger Game Changers universe.
Justice Smith joins as Harris Drover, while Charlie Gillespie plays Troy Barrett. Sky has confirmed both as leading additions to the new season. Other announced names include Daniel Diemer as Ryan Price and Shaheen Jafargholi as Fabian Salah.
And the cast has grown again. Lauren Chan will play Gen, a photographer working with the Ottawa Centaurs. The latest group of additions also includes Brendan Morgan as Zane Boodram, David Tomlinson as Cody Kent, Gerry Dee as Coach Cooper, Michelle Mylett as Lisa and Nick Stahl as Curtis Barrett.
For fans of Reid’s books, some of those names will immediately ring bells. The television version is clearly moving beyond a story involving only Shane and Ilya and towards a wider interconnected queer hockey world.
What will season 2 be about?
At its core, the tension remains familiar: two elite athletes trying to reconcile an intensely private relationship with careers lived under constant public attention. But The Long Game moves the story into a more mature phase. Secrets that seemed manageable at the beginning of a relationship become harder to carry indefinitely, and the question shifts from “Can they be together?” towards “What kind of life can they actually build together?”
The introduction of Harris and Troy also opens another major romantic storyline from Reid’s books, while Ryan and Fabian bring another part of the Game Changers universe onto screen.
That could make season two feel considerably bigger without losing what made the series connect with queer audiences in the first place: messy people, complicated masculinity, vulnerability, attraction and the radical concept that perhaps professional hockey could survive a little romance.
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