“Will you come to my cottage this summer?” has become the winter anthem of 2025-2026. Normally when people watch a piece of media they enjoy it, talk about it and then move on, but even though Heated Rivalry has finished airing its first season, the hype hasn’t died down. 

Directed by Jacob Tierney, Heated Rivalry is a Canadian show based on Rachel Reid’s best-selling hockey romance books, a part of her game changers series. The story revolves around Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, two of the biggest NHL players in the league. Though they pretend to hate each other on the ice, and are thought to be bitter rivals, secretly, behind closed doors, they have a years long relationship/situationship. The show was originally produced for Crave, a Canadian streaming platform, but a switch to premiering on HBO Max, the American cable network giant, helped it gain more traction expand its visibility to a wider global audience. In the context of queer identity and sexuality in the hockey world, the show explores themes of masculinity and public persona. The emotional slow burn and star-crossed yearning makes the viewer fall in love with the show as completely as Shane falls for Ilya. 

“We’ve never seen queer representation like this,” I thought to myself, as I watched the show for the first time. There’s still a lot of limitations in Hollywood when it comes to the portrayal of queerness. The director talked about how he was asked to tone down on the sex scenes when he went to a few distributors in Hollywood. While heated rivalry does feature sexually explicit content the artistic aim is more concerned with exploring the emotional intimacy between the characters than being exploitative.

Women, who have been missing representation of emotional connection, longing, and equal partnership on television, have so far made up the show’s largest audience. Exhausted by the same portrayal of heterosexual masculinity and emotionally unavailable men when all they crave is sincere yearning and connection, women are drawn to stories like Heated Rivalry in which they find that the plot and themes resonate with them. 

Now a global phenomena, Heated Rivalry is still spreading across the globe like a gospel. It has inspired many closeted players, such as Jesse Kortuem, who credited the show this show as giving him the courage to come out publicly. On his instagram, he said, “​​After years of privacy, I’m breaking my silence to share a journey that started in the rink in Minnesota and finally found peace in the mountains of BC. It’s a story about being a closeted athlete, the struggle to reconcile two identities, and finally finding a tribe that changed everything.”

Expressing their gratitude for representation in a predominantly homophobic sport, Korteum reached out personally to the actors. Very rarely, do shows create massive positive impact where queerness is celebrated. Most mainstream stories representing queer love focus on suffering and tragedy rather than joy. Notably, the level of Heated Rivalry’s success became evident when its actors began being mobbed by fans with Beetle-level popularity, less than two months after the first episode aired. Hudson Williams who plays Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie who plays Ilya Rozanov candidly shared about these instances and how they are thrust into sudden fame, especially striking given the fact they were working tables not six months ago. Since then, they have appeared on major talk shows like Tonight with Jimmy Fallon and late night with Seth Meyers and continue to leave a mark with their brilliant performances and the audience are looking forward to what they have in store for us in the future.

They both teased about some things about Season 2 and what scenes are most important and significant for Shane and Ilya’s story and people are super thrilled for some scenes to be adapted especially the trophy scene (ifykyk). The music in the show has also been a standout, inspiring raves and music parties celebrating queer joy. Heated Rivalry has been renewed for a second season, which will likely air next winter. 

Let us know in the comments below what you liked best about Heated Rivalry or what you’re hoping to see in Season 2!