Starring Hudson Williams (Shane Hollander) and Connor Storrie (Ilya Rozanov), Heated Rivalry was turned into a TV show by showrunner Jacob Tierney, based on the Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid, and centered a queer love story between two closeted hockey players going from rivals to lovers. During one of the most dizzying eras for cancelations of LGBTQ+ content in mainstream media, Heated Rivalry thrived — turning its cast members into global superstars, selling out all physical copies of Reid's series of novels, and setting up Tierney as one of the most popular showrunners in television.
As Storrie and Williams continue to grow their careers, season 2 of the show enters production and is tentatively scheduled to air in the first few months of 2027, and Reid releases the third and final book centering Shane and Ilya's love story later this year, it all starts to feel like a fever dream considering how much queer erasure and censorship has been taking place under this current administration.
Two big questions hang in the air at the moment. First and foremost, how did a queer story between two closeted hockey players manage to capture zeitgeist and become appointment television for so many different kinds of audiences around the world? Secondly, does the success of Heated Rivalry inspire more queer representation in the near future? Most insiders claim to have straightforward answers to these questions, but the likeliest path forward isn't exactly straight. (All puns intended.)
The Heated Rivalry TV series defied precedents… and presidents!
Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov on Heated Rivalry.HBO Max/Crave Canada
On the one hand, the "sex sells" cliché is quite hard to ignore, even if its track record with queer content isn't as bulletproof as it is with straight projects. On the other hand, we've seen more live-action adaptations of books failing than succeeding over the years — some of which had much wider fandoms, bigger budgets, and also explored sex and sexuality as major storylines.
When comparing Heated Rivalry to other recent projects that share similarities — such as the commitment of Looking and Queer As Folk to show more realistic gay sex scenes, or other live-action adaptations of existing queer novels such as Heartstopper and Fellow Travelers — it's fair to say that those titles didn't reach the same popularity as this Canadian show produced by Crave. In many ways, there was literally no precedent for Heated Rivalry to work.
A quite Unrivaled situation, one could say.
Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Kolton Stewart as Carter Vaughn on Heated Rivalry.HBO Max/Crave Canada
The political climate in the U.S. hasn't exactly been encouraging (to say the least) for studios, networks, and streaming services to bet on queer content, either! The existence of trans people is literally under attack. There's a real risk of gay marriage being overturned. Even talk shows hosted by comedians are being canceled and/or suspended for political reasons.
Ironically, Heated Rivalry being entirely produced and financed in Canada means that no conservative governor or president across the U.S. can do anything that would meaningfully hurt the beloved queer show. That is unlike what happened when the Pentagon called Netflix's Boots "woke trash," which might've added some trepidation before renewing the show for a second season.
Heated Rivalry has zero ties to U.S. politics. HBO Max could theoretically drop the streaming rights of the Canadian series (it hasn't, and it probably won't — this is just a hypothetical), and the show would still move forward with its confirmed second season.
In many ways, Heated Rivalry wouldn't exist under the current Hollywood model. But, to quote another t.A.T.u. song: "They're not gonna get us." Oh, Canada!
Does a queer Heated Rivalry impact the queer Hollywood realm?
Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov on Heated Rivalry.HBO Max/Crave Canada
GLAAD's Where We Are on TV (2024-2025) report, which evaluates queer representation on TV across mainstream U.S. media, showed that nearly half of all LGBTQ+ characters on television were featured on shows that won't return with new seasons beyond 2025. Noteworthy endings and cancelations for queer shows in 2025 include Mid-Century Modern (Hulu), Olympo (Netflix), And Just Like That… (HBO Max), Boots (Netflix), 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox), Clean Slate (Prime Video), and The Conners (ABC), among others.
No, Heated Rivalry is obviously (and fortunately) not the only successful LGBTQ-inclusive series to have a new season in 2026 (and/or early 2027). However, the list of other shows coming back to the small screen has more conundrums and caveats than actual cultural cache.
Benito Skinner on Overcompensating; Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow on The Hunting Wives; Jordan Firstman on I Love LA; Zendaya on Euphoria; Sam Reid on Interview With the Vampire a.k.a. The Vampire Lestat; Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart on Hacks.Prime Video/A24; Netflix; HBO Max; HBO Max; AMC; HBO Max
Hacks — the best comedy on television, queer or otherwise, full-stop — is returning for its fifth season on HBO Max. Unfortunately, this will be the last season we get from Jean Smart as Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels. HBO's prestigious-turned-perplexing Euphoria will finally wrap things up with season 3. Its stars are all too busy doing movies and too old to play high schoolers. Its showrunner is still answering for The Idol trainwreck, not to mention the four-year waiting period since season 2 aired and season 3 was scheduled for 2026.
Netflix's The Hunting Wives is one of the biggest queer shows to come out of 2025, and it was promptly renewed for a second season that'll come as quickly as possible to the streaming service. Admittedly, though, it might not be the show for viewers who aren't fond of glorifying firearms, or homophobic viewers who don't enjoy the sapphic dynamics between the characters. Another standout queer show of the year is Overcompensating, a coproduction between Prime Video and A24 that is spearheaded and led by Benito Skinner. Despite its immense social media hype and great reviews across the board, all eight episodes within season 1 were released mid-May, and it wasn't until September that the show got a season 2 renewal.
Rachel Sennott's new comedy series, I Love LA, got the full HBO treatment: A huge marketing campaign, a second season renewal within the same month that it premiered, and a substantial budget to accommodate its cast and guest stars. In practical terms, the show hasn't quite found its audience like Girls did in 2012 and like Insecure did in 2016, though it has the potential to run for as many seasons as the aforementioned titles. Last but not least, AMC's impeccable Interview With the Vampire series is returning for a third season under a new name: The Vampire Lestat. There are canon reasons for the title change, certainly, but it'd be dishonest not to acknowledge that season 2 suffered from a Lestat-less storyline. Played by Sam Reid on this TV show adaptation, Lestat is the most interesting character of the universe, and the title change reflects that the show is determinedly urging fans to please come back.
These nuances underscore that these shows are either already scheduled to end or are skating on thin ice. And that's not even getting into the complex acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which owns HBO/HBO Max, which makes three of the six aforementioned shows. One of the potential buyers, Netflix, is home to another show on the list above. It's unclear which changes will be made — and which properties will get cut — once a WBD deal is finally made with Netflix or Paramount.
At the moment, Heated Rivalry is a map and a destination, but not a blueprint.
François Arnaud as Scott Hunter and Robbie G.K. as Kip Grady on Heated Rivalry.HBO Max/Crave Canada
In a parallel multiverse with different U.S. politics and federal administration, we could see Heated Rivalry being a blueprint to inspire more LGBTQ+ shows to be both daring and delicate in their queer storytelling. In this reality, though, queer representation is facing the same decreases as Black representation and Latine representation in mainstream media, both in front and behind the camera. It's hard to imagine that this will suddenly change, out of nowhere, in the next three years.
Heated Rivalry will continue to bring joy to its fans and inspire hope for more inclusivity in sports for closeted athletes, but its success will likely inspire a straight, white, American story before anything else that dares to be queer and/or intersectional. As long as Hollywood is at the mercy of federal agencies calling a queer military show "woke garbage" and suspending late-night talk shows due to misunderstood jokes — all while witnessing a huge streaming service or a major studio acquiring Warner Bros Discovery — it's hard to decisively declare that "I'll Believe in Anything."
Thank goodness for Heated Rivalry and all the LGBTQ+ content that does, somehow, makes its way to our screens.
The final scene of Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov in the Heated Rivalry season 1 finale.HBO Max/Crave Canada
Bernardo Sim is a staff writer and associate editor for Out magazine. Follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim and explore more of his work on bernardosim.com/links.
The 'Opinion' section is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in 'Opinion' stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.
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