17c起草社区

The girls, gays, and hockey romance obsessives can finally exhale: Heated Rivalry season 2 is officially moving closer to reality, with new reports confirming filming is expected to kick off in Canada very soon.

The wildly popular queer hockey drama is reportedly just weeks away from beginning to film season 2 across Toronto and Montreal, with the series currently listed as being in pre-production.

Based on Rachel Reid鈥檚 beloved Game Changers novels, Heated Rivalry became one of the internet鈥檚 most unexpectedly gigantic queer TV obsessions when it dropped last year, and ‘I’m coming to the cottage’ became part of the common gay lexicon (what feels like) overnight.

For the blissfully uninitiated: season one followed rival hockey superstars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), whose on-ice rivalry slowly spiralled into a secret years-long romance filled with hookups, queer repression, and international hockey tournaments. Also, plenty of yearning and looking longingly at one another across night clubs.

Season two is expected to adapt The Long Game, the sequel novel which follows Shane and Ilya attempting to navigate an actual public-ish relationship while dealing with career pressure, mental health struggles, media scrutiny. And of course, the fact that the world of professional hockey about gay people. Which is to say: not at all.

Naturally, fans are already fully in detective mode over casting rumours.

One of the biggest names floating around online is Canadian actor Jack Innanen, who recently confirmed he鈥檇 had 鈥渃onversations鈥� about joining season two after fans began campaigning for him to play either Troy Barrett or Wyatt Hayes.

鈥淚鈥檝e had some鈥� conversations. We鈥檝e chatted,” he .

鈥淚 think I鈥檓 perfect for the show because I am down for anything and I played hockey. I got some mini sticks, I鈥檝e been practising, I鈥檝e been working on my stick handling. I鈥檝e been working on my hip mobility.鈥�

But he stopped short of confirming anything, saying,聽鈥淲ho knows?鈥�

There鈥檚 also been ongoing chatter around alleged leaked casting calls for new characters: Ryan Price, Fabian Salah, Eric Bennett, Harris Drover, Troy Barrett, Dallas Kent, Wyatt Hayes, Lucas Haas, and Dr Galina Molchalina.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

But plenty of fans are sceptical, with some calling the supposed leaks 鈥渇an fiction鈥� rather than legitimate production documents.

The show’s leads, Storrie and Williams, have rapidly become full-blown breakout stars, with the pair landing major new roles.

However, if you’re a Heated Rivalry stan, you’ll sadly be waiting a while to see the internet鈥檚 favourite emotionally tortured hockey boyfriends again 鈥� season two is set to hit screens in 2027.