Hudson Williams just gifted eager fans two things with his first-ever appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival: his drool-worthy waist-to-bicep ratio on the red carpet and a glimpse into Heated Rivalry season 2.
Williams attended TIFF ahead of the release of Yaga, the upcoming witchy detective series in which he stars as a wealthy heir to a powerful fishery who goes missing.
Photos taken on the red carpet when he arrived quickly went viral because they featured Williams dripping in Bulgari jewelry and sporting black pants that enhanced his now-legendary butt and a tight black shirt that showed off the impressive gym gains he warned fans they'd see in season 2 of the popular gay hockey romance.
But beyond swooning over his festival fits, fans have been eating up every word he said during a Q&A at a Yaga panel, especially hints he gave about Heated Rivalry’s much-anticipated second season and his friendship with co-star Connor Storrie.
In response to a question from Rachel Reid, author of the Game Changer series Heated Rivalry is based on, the 25-year-old actor reminded the panel audience that he and Storrie would be making out on screen very soon, and admitted that stepping back into the roles of closeted hockey stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov was “surreal” for both of them.
“It is surreal, you know? Connor and I were talking about it the closer the date got to shooting this thing,” he said before imitating Storrie. “We’re like, ‘This is very surreal. We’re gonna be kissing each other, brother! I’m going to be doing a f*cking Russian accent to you!’ And I’m like, ‘I know, it’s crazy!’”
Williams said that both he and Storrie were “possibly overconfident” that they could immediately step back into the roles that made them famous without any problems.
After Storrie shot his first scenes for the upcoming season, he was nervous that he lost his mojo and was “doing an impression of Ilya” instead of embodying the character, according to Williams.
“But I heard him say that, and I was like, ‘Okay, chump.’ Like I’m gonna show up, and Shane’s gonna come back like that,” Williams said. “And then I showed up, and then I was doing the scene…and I was like, 'Oh god, oh god, am I doing a Shane impression? And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m losing it, I’m losing it.’”
Williams also let fans — who have been photographing the stars around Toronto trying to get a window into their friendship — know that his relationship with Storrie is as strong as ever when he listed his co-star along with his girlfriend Katelyn Larson and cat Gizmo as the people he’d want to accompany him on a private jet to a vacation getaway.
“We’re taking the PJ, which is a limited number of seats,” he said. “I’m taking people I know, Katelyn, Connor, my Vancouver friends, my high school friends, Gizmo.”
Yaga will premiere on Oct. 23, 2026, on AMC+ in the U.S., and Heated Rivalry season 2 is slated to drop in April 2027.
