Heated Rivalry Season 2 Release Window & Episode Count Confirmed By Jacob Tierney

1 week ago 9

This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.

This just in — some major news for the massive fandom of the surprise worldwide smash hit from late 2025.

The Crave Original Heated Rivalry hit HBO Max in November 2025, its first season running in December, and swiftly became a verifiable cultural phenomenon. The romance sports drama follows the years-long secret relationship between Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), star hockey players for their respective countries.

In a new interview with LA Times, showrunner Jacob Tierney lets fans know roughly when they can expect the highly anticipated follow-up. According to Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady, Heated Rivalry's sophomore season will arrive in spring 2027, at the earliest. Teirney also seemingly affirmed that Heated Rivalry season 2 will again be six episodes long.

The next season will be based on The Long Game, another book in Rachel Reid's Game Changers series. While it has been floated that the TV show could split The Long Game into two seasons, Tierney didn't say whether they would do this, but did say that he can't imagine more than six episodes per season, saying: "I don't need to do 10. I would always rather tighten the belt than get loosey-goosey."

Since the announcement of Heated Rivalry's renewal, it has been expected that it would take the show some time to return, allowing the writers to produce a season that lives up to the first. "As much as I appreciate how rabid and interested people are at this point, the first season worked because I trusted my gut with this, and I'm going to do that again," Tierney also said.

Tierney previously confirmed that the next installment wouldn't be ready before 2027, but the release window has narrowed. The first season adapts Game Changer and Heated Rivalry, the first two books in Reid's series. While Shane and Ilya are Heated Rivalry's protagonists, Scott (François Arnaud) and Kip (Robbie G.K.), the main romance of the first novel, are positioned as a secondary storyline in the show.