Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard all about Heated Rivalry. But what you probably don’t know is how a real-life hockey rivalry and a certain Marvel movie played a role in the origins of the popular gay hockey romance show.
Adapted from Rachel Reid’s popular novel of the same name, Heated Rivalry follows the fierce rivalry between star hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rosanov (Connor Storrie) and their secret, years-long, enemies-to-lovers romance off the ice.
The Canadian series, which is streamed via Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the U.S., spans years as Shane and Ilya go from curious rookies who start a secret fling to Stanley Cup-winning rivals who spend years yearning for each other and meeting up for trysts before their romance can become something more.
While the show may be based on Reid’s Game Changer series of interconnected standalone gay romance novels, the rivalry at the heart of Heated Rivalry (and some of her characters) was inspired by real-life hockey players — and one of the episodes has a surprising fan-fiction origin story.
Is 'Heated Rivalry' based on a real hockey rivalry?
Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images
The gay romance between two National Hockey League stars might not be based on a true story, but the rivalry between Shane and Ilya was originally inspired by a famous hockey feud.
NHL stars Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby were drafted in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and then spent years in a legendary rivalry that was egged on by fans and the media circus that surrounded them. The rivalry pushed both players to new heights in their careers, and games between their teams (the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals) became must-watch events for fans, much like the plot of Heated Rivarly — minus the gay romance storyline.
And while Reid says all of her characters are original creations, she admits she drew inspiration from the Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry for the book.
"I never directly base my characters on any real people," Reid wrote on her website. "One of my inspirations for Heated Rivalry was, obviously, the extremely entertaining rivalry between Crosby and Ovechkin. But I was also inspired by other sports rivalries, by other fictional stories, and by my love of the enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance tropes."
Who are Shane and Ilya based on?
Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander in 'Heated Rivalry.'
Crave Canada
The rivalry was based on the legendary feud between Crosby and Ovechkin. But beyond Ovechkin being a record-breaking star player and captain of his team, the only real similarity is that they are both Russian.
In an interview with Canada’s CP24, Reid said that she based Ilya on not only Ovechkin but "all these flashy European players” like Jaromír Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk.
While Ilya was based on louder, more boisterous players, Reid drew inspiration for Shane from "more stoic, good boy captains,” like Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, and Paul Kariya, who she described as being “more role-modely types.”
Is ‘Heated Rivalry’s gay Marvel fanfic origin story true?
As soon as episode 3 aired, fans started talking about their theory that Game Changer — the first book in Reid’s story that served as the basis for the episode — has a surprising Marvel origin story.
The fan theory is that Game Changer was originally a “Stucky” story posted to the fan-fiction website AO3 (Archive of Our Own). Stucky refers to the romantic pairing of Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier).
Reid says that she didn’t write the first book in her gay hockey romance series as a Stucky fanfic originally, but fans aren’t totally off base either.
The story didn't start out as fanfic, but Game Changer was her first foray into fiction writing, and she was so nervous she decided to post her story on AO3 to build her confidence. So she reworked it into an alternate-universe story where Steve Rogers, the “superstar captain of the New York Rangers,” falls in love with smoothie barista Bucky Barnes because she thought you were only allowed to post fan fiction on the website.
“Honestly, I felt bad about it,” Reid told Salon. “I knew this wasn’t what ‘Game Changer’ was.”
In 2016, Reid was feeling better about her writing, so she pulled the story off the website and submitted her manuscript to publishers. And the rest is history.
Heated Rivalry drops a new episode each Friday on HBO Max (and Crave in Canada).
