Meet Heated Rivalry‘s newest couple: Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow; Now You See Me: Now You Don’t) and Charlie Gillespie (One Night Only, Splitsville, Suze) are joining returning stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as leads in the upcoming second season of the hugely popular Crave Original series Heated Rivalry, which is confirmed to premiere in spring 2027.
Smith and Gillespie will play Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, respectively, the couple at the center of Role Model, the fifth book in Rachel Reid’s bestselling Game Changers series, on which Heated Rivalry is based.
Production on Season 2 of the show, which streams on HBO Max in the U.S. and several other territories, started earlier this week in Canada.
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After Season 1 adapted Book 2, Heated Rivalry, which chronicles the budding romance between rival hockey players Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), while also incorporating elements from Book 1, Game Changer (featuring Scott and Kip), Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney had said that Season 2 will continue Shane and Ilya’s story by tackling Book 6, The Long Game, while also introducing a new couple by taking on Role Model.
Troy Barrett is a hockey player on Ilya Rozanov’s team with a history of bullying while Harris Drover is the team’s cheerful social media manager.
“Rachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can’t help but root for,” said executive producers Tierney and Brendan Brady. “From the start of the casting process, we knew we were looking for actors who could create something truly special together and bring that same depth and heart to the screen. Justice and Charlie do exactly that. They immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters, bringing an instinctive understanding of who Harris and Troy are.”
In Season 1, Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) are bound by ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understood. What began as a secret fling between two fresh-faced rookies evolved into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery.
Heated Rivalry, which became an instant global phenomenon when Season 1 was released in late 2025, is commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund. Tierney is writer, director, and executive producer. Brady and Jayme Alter Wilson serve as executive producers. Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje are producers, with Reid as consulting producer. Mike Goldbach serves as co-writer on Season 2.
The seriesis produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Bell Media’s Crave. It is distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus, a Bell Media company, and is available in more than 130 countries.
