Long game, role model plot teased by Showrunner
“Heated Rivalry” showrunner Jacob Tierney is writing season 2 of the hockey romance series, which he says will find Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) “in much more serious territory” than the lovers in the first installment.
“It’s different. It’s really different,” Tierney said during a panel alongside Rachel Reid, author of the book “Heated Rivalry,” Saturday at BookCon at the Javits Center in New York. “And the challenge of this, from an adjustment point of view, is that you’re in much more serious territory. A lot of the initial – there’s still a lot of flirting and a lot of sex – but this kind of danger, this kind of hotel room-adolescent-sex stuff is largely gone. And so it really presents new challenges.”
Tierney brought on Michael Goldbach as co-writer for Season 2 of ‘Heated Rivalry’ to help with the process, as the production team hopes to release the new episodes sooner rather than later amid the immense popularity of the Crave/HBO Max show’s first season. The storyline in Season 2, based on Reid’s book “The Long Game” (the sequel to “Heated Rivalry” and part of Reid’s overall “Game Changer” series), is more complex than the plot in the show’s first season, as Shane and Ilya face the realities of a relationship after a slow-burn romance.
“Part of the reason you start with ‘Heated Rivalry,’ in terms of adaptation, is because you want to get to ‘The Long Game,'” Tierney said. “Because ‘The Long Game’ is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously. What I’ve always said about this show is that there are a lot of books – ‘Game Changer’ is in ‘Heated Rivalry’ and of course, as you all know by now, parts of ‘Role Model’ will of course be in [Season 2]much to the surprise of absolutely no one. But Ilya and Shane are the heartbeat of this series, of my show. It will always be about Ilya and Shane, that’s the trajectory through it as their world expands.”
Tierney joked that he calls Reid’s book “The Long Game” “Sex Scenes From a Marriage,” noting that a big fight between Shane and Ilya is one of his favorite moments from the story.
“There’s a Bergman-esque kind of thing: What do you do after the danger has passed and you now have to live in a relationship where you still don’t communicate well, no matter how much you might want to?” Tierney said. “You can say you love each other, but as adults know, there is so much more that goes into making a relationship work.”
As Tierney confirmed, Reid’s book “Role Model” — which is part of the overall “Game Changer” novel series but follows the relationship of hockey player Troy Barrett and team social media manager Harris Drover rather than Shane and Ilya — will be incorporated into Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry.”
“In ‘Long Game’ you think, OK, we’re here to anchor this in something that feels very real,” Tierney said. “And the same goes for Troy and Harris, right. I think there’s an easy, fascicle way to look at ‘Role Model,’ because it’s very cranky/sunshine, it’s a whole apple orchard. It can veer into things you want. But Troy is a really damaged man. And Troy is quite damaged on the show. I would say we’re diving into that even harder. Because that’s what’s interesting.”
