The hit hockey romance series Heated Rivalry is moving forward with its second season. Creator Jacob Tierney just shared a new update while picking up a major award. The show continues to win praise, and fans now know that work on the new episodes is happening right now.
Tierney accepted the Showrunner Award at the 3rd Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television in Los Angeles on May 29, 2026. He sent in a video speech because he was too busy writing the new season to attend the ceremony in person.
Tierney Says He Is Working Hard to Get Season 2 Out Fast
Jacob Tierney did not travel to Los Angeles for the Critics Choice event. He stayed home to keep writing. In his pre-recorded acceptance speech, he explained why he could not be there.
“Thank you so much to the Critics Choice Association for this amazing and unexpected honor,” said Tierney. “I’m so, so grateful, and I’m so sorry that I cannot be there to celebrate with all of you in person and accept this. I’m working very hard on Season 2 to get it out to people as soon as possible. I genuinely wish I could be there. I’m so moved by this.”
Tierney also thanked his producing partner Brendan Brady, book author Rachel Reid, and the full cast and crew of the show.
The award itself recognizes Tierney’s work on the first season of Heated Rivalry. That season came out in November 2025 on Crave in Canada and HBO Max (now called Max) in the United States and other countries.
Season 2 Follows The Long Game Book Story
The second season will not continue directly from where the first season ended. Instead, it will adapt the next book in Rachel Reid’s series called The Long Game. That book came out in 2022.
Tierney confirmed this plan earlier when the show got renewed. The Long Game jumps forward ten years in the lives of the two main characters. The first season covered the early years of their secret relationship. The second season will show them as older adults dealing with bigger problems.
Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams will return as Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander. Both actors confirmed their return after the renewal news broke in December 2025.
The Story Gets More Serious in New Episodes
Tierney spoke about the tone of Heated Rivalry Season 2 at a BookCon panel in April 2026. He made it clear that the new season feels very different from the first one.
“You’re in much more serious territory,” Tierney said at the panel. “There’s still lots of flirting, and there’s lots of sex, but it’s this kind of danger. This kind of ‘hotel room, adolescent sex’ stuff is largely gone.”
The Long Game picks up with Shane and Ilya ten years into their hidden relationship. Ilya has moved to play for the Ottawa Centaurs so he can live closer to Shane. They have started a charity together. But the problem of coming out publicly hangs over everything. Ilya wants to go public. Shane thinks they should keep the secret to protect their hockey careers.
Tierney explained why this story matters to him as a writer.
“What do you do after the rush of danger is gone and yet now you have to live in a relationship where you still aren’t communicating properly, much as you would like to?” Tierney said. “You can say you love each other, but as adults know, there’s so much more than that to make a relationship successful. And that is what they are learning.”
New Characters Join the Cast in Season 2
Fans of Rachel Reid’s books will see some familiar new faces in Heated Rivalry Season 2. Tierney confirmed at the BookCon panel that parts of another book called Role Model will appear in the new season.
That means viewers will meet Troy Barrett, a hockey player who gets traded to play with Ilya on the Centaurs. Troy has a difficult past. The book Role Model tells his love story with Harris Drover, the team’s social media manager.
Tierney said the show will dig deeper into Troy’s struggles than the book does.
“Troy is a really damaged guy. And Troy is quite damaged on the show. I would say we’re digging into that even harder,” Tierney explained.
Filming Starts in August 2026
The production schedule for Heated Rivalry Season 2 is now set. Filming will begin in August 2026. Tierney is finishing the scripts right now. Once he completes writing, the cast and crew will start shooting the new episodes.
Brendan Brady, the executive producer, appeared on CBS Mornings in February 2026 with Tierney. They both confirmed the August start date. Brady also said they wanted to take their time to make sure the quality stays high.
“We wanted to elevate this to the level that it deserved,” Brady said during that interview.
The cast is getting ready for the shoot. Hudson Williams has already turned down other acting jobs to make time for Heated Rivalry. The crime show Criminal Minds: Evolution tried to cast him for its nineteenth season. But the schedule did not work out because Williams will be filming the hockey show in August.
Connor Storrie, his co-star, did appear on Criminal Minds: Evolution. His episodes started airing on May 28, 2026. The show’s producers said they wanted Williams too but could not get him because of the Heated Rivalry schedule.
Fans Will Wait Until 2027 for New Episodes
The new season will not come out quickly. Viewers should expect to see Heated Rivalry Season 2 in April 2027. Tierney and Brady confirmed this release window during their CBS Mornings appearance in February.
Tierney had already warned fans in December 2025 that the wait would be longer than one year. He told Entertainment Weekly that the show would not return in 2026. But he promised it would not take two full years either. The April 2027 date fits that promise.
The first season became a global hit after it launched on NOW TV in the United Kingdom in January 2026. It reached number one on the streaming service’s charts. The show’s popularity in multiple countries helped secure the quick renewal.
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The Long Game Might Need More Than One Season
Tierney has hinted that Heated Rivalry Season 2 may not cover the entire Long Game book. The book has a lot of material. Tierney told Deadline earlier that he might split the story across a second and third season.
“Who said I’m doing it all? There’s a lot of material,” Tierney said in April 2026.
At the BookCon panel, he made a similar joke. He called The Long Game “so long and so gamey, like eating venison.” He also said he would get into “a lot of trouble” if he confirmed exactly how much of the book the new season will cover.
This leaves open the possibility of a third season. Fans of the book series know that Rachel Reid has written five books in the Game Changers world. The author’s next book, Unrivaled, comes out on September 29, 2026. That book returns to Shane and Ilya’s story after The Long Game ends.
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