All the new faces joining season two of Heated Rivalry
Heated Rivalry season two adds Schitt's Creek's Emily Hampshire and four more stars
Heated Rivalry has locked in five new cast members for its second season, led by Schitt’s Creek alum Emily Hampshire.
The series based on Rachel Reid’s bestselling Game Changers book series, revealed the additions on Friday, August 14.
Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek, Marvel’s VisionQuest) joins as Vanessa, with Young Royals breakout Edvin Ryding stepping into the role of Luca Haas.
Mile End Kicks actor Robert Naylor rounds out the new additions as Wyatt Hayes, while comedian Sabrina Jalees (I Used to Be Funny, Black Mirror) takes on Farah Jalali.
Canada’s Drag Race alum Priyanka (Drag Brunch Saved My Life, Meet Me Next Christmas) completes the new line-up as Tarek.
The five join a previously announced season two cast that includes Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie, who are playing Harris Drover and Troy Barrett respectively. The pair’s romance is drawn from Reid’s fifth Game Changers novel, Role Model, my favourite in the series and marks the show’s second central couple alongside Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.
The casting has divided fans online. In Reid’s books, Harris is described as stocky, with his body type central to his arc and insecurities, and some readers have said online they’re disappointed the show isn’t reflecting that in Smith’s casting, arguing it removes rare heavier-set queer representation from the story. Others have welcomed seeing more of Reid’s hockey universe make it to screen at all.
Reid appears to have addressed the reaction obliquely on Instagram, referencing the scepticism that initially met the casting of Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as Shane and Ilya: “Thinking about all the people last summer who told me the casting for Ilya and Shane was wrong and bad…” She didn’t name specific critics or say directly whether she expects Smith and Gillespie to win sceptics over.
Season one leads Williams and Storrie are also back, reprising their roles as rival hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.
The first season followed Hollander and Rozanov’s journey from secret rookie fling to years-long entanglement of love, denial and self-discovery, bound together by rivalry and ambition neither of them fully understood.
Season two is set to premiere on HBO Max in the Southern Hemisphere autumn 2027, with Australia among the regions getting access alongside the United States, Europe (excluding the UK, Ireland, Spain and Turkey), Latin America and parts of Asia including the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Series creator Jacob Tierney returns as writer, director and executive producer, with Mike Goldbach joining as co-writer for season two.
Brendan Brady and Jayme Alter Wilson are executive producers, Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje are producers, and Rachel Reid, author of the books the series is adapted from, serves as consulting producer.
Heated Rivalry is produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Bell Media’s Crave, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, and is distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus in more than 130 countries.
In a separate development, Dylan Walsh, who plays Shane’s father, David Hollander, has stepped back from Cameo after a fan-requested video of him discussing season two went viral. In the clip, Walsh said: “Getting ready to go back up to Canada and shoot some more episodes… I think we’re doing 12 this time,” appearing to reveal a bigger episode order than the roughly six-episode seasons Tierney has previously described. Walsh’s Cameo profile now shows him unavailable until August 2027, with a message reading: “Stepping away because a video went viral that got me in trouble.”
With the book series’ loyal fanbase watching every casting reveal closely, expect the reaction to these new names, and the leaked details, to be just as heated as the title promises.