Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie Join Heated Rivalry for Season 2

Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie have been added to the cast of the Crave/HBO Max series Heated Rivalry for its second season. Smith will portray Harris Drover, the Ottawa Centaurs’ social‑media manager, while Gillespie will play Troy Barrett, a professional hockey player transferred to the same team. The new season, slated for a spring 2027 release, will continue the storylines from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, adapting the sixth book The Long Game as the main arc and drawing on the fifth book Role Model for the Harris‑Troy storyline. Creator and showrunner Jacob Tierney confirmed production is underway in Canada and emphasized that the actors “immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters.” The series, originally commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave with support from the Canada Media Fund, will also be distributed internationally, including on Lionsgate Play in India.