“Heated Rivalry” creator Jacob Tierney is giving a sneak peek at what fans should expect in Season 2.
Tierney said on “CBS Mornings” that the next season of the hit show on HBO Max will debut in “late spring.”
“I don’t have an official date yet. I’m not hiding anything,” Tierney said.
He added the upcoming season will focus on Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s relationship, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. Tierney said it will be largely based on “The Long Game,” the sixth installment of Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” hockey romance series.
“My north star in this show, because there are a lot of books in this series, is I’m focusing on Shane and Ilya and we are tracking this relationship. There are new couples and characters that intersect with them. It’s a much more expanded universe. It’s a bigger show in that way,” Tierney said.
He added the second season will explore what Shane and Ilya do after “they get their quiet happiness at the end of Season 1” and how it “translates into the rest of their lives.”
Using intimacy as a storytelling tool in “Heated Rivalry”
Tierney is giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at creating the series in his new book, “I’ll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1.” Among the most talked-about parts of the series are the steamy sex scenes.
“I wanted to make sure that the sex was telling a story, that we’re learning things about these characters through the way that they relate to each other sexually,” Tierney said, adding he “didn’t want it to feel gratuitous.”
“I was happy to make a show that was steamy, that was sexy, that was great. I think that’s fun. But I really wanted to make sure that we were tracking this relationship through some of those more physical and intimate moments because it’s about two guys that don’t speak to each other,” he said.
The creator and executive producer said viewers watch Shane and Ilya have a physical relationship in the first half of the season that “accumulates into a meaning for them that is very, very important and they just can’t express that.”
Music selection in the series
In his new book, Tierney also revealed he centered episode five in the first season around the song “I’ll Believe in Anything” by Wolf Parade. Tierney told “CBS Mornings” that he fell in love with Wolf Parade when he was in his early 20s.
“I think the music you fall in love with when you are young is music that means so much to you,” Tierney said.
He said he looks for songs that he believes are powerful and should’ve been a big hit.
“These are songs that have an enormous amount of meaning to me. In my head I’m like, ‘Why isn’t this a No. 1 hit?'” Tierney said.
