Heated Rivalry is putting six more players on its Season 2 roster. Brendan Morgan, David Tomlinson, Gerry Dee, Michelle Mylett, Lauren Chan and Nick Stahl have joined the Crave-HBO Max hockey romance. The series is scheduled to return on HBO Max in spring 2027, with Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie reprising the central roles of rival players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

The newly announced parts are Brendan Morgan as Zane Boodram, David Tomlinson as Cody Kent, Gerry Dee as Coach Cooper, Michelle Mylett as Lisa, Lauren Chan as Gen, and Nick Stahl as Curtis Barrett. For readers of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers books, Tomlinson’s character is identified as Dallas Kent in the novels.

That is a substantial addition to an ensemble that already includes Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Daniel Diemer, Shaheen Jafargholi, Robert Naylor, Sophie Nélisse, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Edvin Ryding, François Arnaud, Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Robbie G.K., Callan Potter, Benjamin Roy, Kamilla Kowal, Emily Hampshire, Sabrina Jalees, Priyanka, Kevin Zegers, Paul Gross and Milla Jovovich.

The casting news does not spell out character arcs, episode counts, or how closely every Season 2 role will track the books. Still, the size and range of the announced cast reinforces that the show’s second season is being built as more than a two-person drama. That matters for a story whose core relationship is shaped by a competitive professional environment, private pressures, and the people around its two leads.

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The six new Season 2 cast members

  • Brendan Morgan will play Zane Boodram. Morgan’s previous credits include F*** Marry Kill and The Handmaid’s Tale.
  • David Tomlinson will play Cody Kent, a character called Dallas Kent in the Game Changers books. Tomlinson has appeared in Fellow Travelers and Silent Night.
  • Gerry Dee joins as Coach Cooper. His credits include Mr. D and Animal Control.
  • Michelle Mylett will play Lisa. She is known for Letterkenny and El Camino Christmas.
  • Lauren Chan joins as Gen. Chan’s credits include The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Canada’s Drag Race.
  • Nick Stahl will play Curtis Barrett. His previous work includes Let the Right One In and Terminator 3.

Names alone do not establish whether a character is an ally, antagonist, teammate, family member, or another part of the hockey world. The lone role label that provides an immediate clue is Coach Cooper. A coach is inherently positioned close to the professional stakes of a sports story: playing time, performance expectations, discipline, team culture and rivalry can all pass through that role. But the show has not detailed Coach Cooper’s relationship to Shane, Ilya, or either player’s club, so it would be premature to assign a larger narrative function.

The casting is also notable for connecting series creator Jacob Tierney with three performers he has worked with before. Tierney directed Dee in the sitcom Mr. D. He co-starred with Mylett in Letterkenny, a series he co-created, directed and executive produced. Stahl appeared in Tierney’s 2003 film Twist, which Tierney wrote and directed.

What the returning premise establishes

Heated Rivalry adapts Reid’s Game Changers books. Its first-season premise follows Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, rival hockey players whose initially secret relationship develops across years alongside their professional ambitions and personal self-discovery.

That description supplies the essential framework, not a Season 2 plot synopsis. “Secret fling” captures the relationship’s earliest form, while “years-long journey” indicates a story designed to follow change over time rather than resolve its central tension in a single beat. Rivalry is doing double duty here: it is both a sporting condition and a source of pressure on the people at the story’s center.

For a television adaptation, an expanded ensemble can help make that pressure visible from several directions. Coaches and teammates can embody the stakes of competition. Friends, partners, family figures, executives, or media-adjacent characters can broaden the social world beyond the rink. That is an analytical reading of why a series with this premise might add roles; the production has not yet assigned those specific functions to Morgan, Tomlinson, Mylett, Chan or Stahl’s characters.

The adaptation’s naming note around Tomlinson’s role is worth separating from speculation as well. The production identifies him as Cody Kent while also flagging Dallas Kent as the character’s book name. It confirms a difference in naming between page and screen, but it does not by itself explain why the change was made or signal broader changes to the source material.

A deeper bench around Williams and Storrie

Williams and Storrie returning as Shane and Ilya is the clearest continuity point for Season 2. The six additions join a list that ranges from established film and television actors to performers with strong Canadian comedy and drama ties. It is an ensemble built across different kinds of screen work, but no casting announcement can establish tone, screen time, or chemistry before episodes arrive.

There is nevertheless a practical production takeaway in the returning Tierney collaborations. A creator who has previously worked with part of the cast does not guarantee a particular result, but it can mean shared professional shorthand: performers and director may already understand one another’s process, timing, or on-set expectations. In a show balancing relationship drama with a hockey setting, that familiarity may be useful. It should be treated as context, however, rather than evidence about any individual character’s importance.

Tierney serves as writer, director and executive producer. Brendan Brady and Jayme Alter Wilson are also executive producers; Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje are producers; and Reid is a consulting producer. Mike Goldbach is a co-writer for Season 2.

A consulting producer is generally a credited creative contributor who advises a production, though the precise scope of that work can vary from project to project. Here, Reid’s credit establishes a formal ongoing connection between the author of the underlying books and the television series. It does not define which individual scripts, casting choices, or adaptation changes she has approved.

Similarly, a co-writer credit means Goldbach is writing Season 2 alongside Tierney; the available production information does not break work down by episode or reveal the division of writing responsibilities. These distinctions are useful because adaptation credits often tell viewers who is attached creatively without offering a detailed map of day-to-day decisions.

Where and when Season 2 is expected

Season 2 is expected in spring 2027 on HBO Max. The series is commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave with participation from the Canada Media Fund, produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Crave, and distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus, a Bell Media company.

Distribution is a key term in this context. The distributor handles the international sales and delivery side of a show, distinct from the companies making it and the platforms presenting it to viewers. The information currently available identifies HBO Max for the spring 2027 premiere, while international distribution by Sphere Abacus indicates the series is intended to travel beyond its originating Canadian commissioning arrangement. It does not provide a full country-by-country release schedule.

For now, the useful certainty is the expanded list of performers, the six assigned role names, the lead pair’s return, and the spring 2027 HBO Max window. Details such as a trailer, episode total, fuller Season 2 story description and specific character relationships remain unconfirmed in the provided production information. For the concise casting rundown, see the Season 2 cast update.