Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s journey may be over for now — “Heated Rivarly” Season 2 is likely not coming until 2027 — but Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie have the perfect solution to hold fans over.
The actors are set to narrate “Ember & Ice,” Quinn’s three-episode immersive audio romance. Per the official logline, “Ember & Ice” follows fae princes Dane and Finn from rival Solari and Lunare kingdoms. The series, “set in a richly imagined fantasy world shaped by history, duty, and forbidden desire,” is “a story about choosing love in defiance of expectation” and amplifies “every moment of tension, longing, and intimacy.”
Quinn confirmed that Storrie will not be reading in an accent as he does in “Heated Rivalry,” posting on X, “We tried.” While some Quinn original stories feature the main character speaking directly to the reader, this will be a gay romance, without a self-insert listener character.
“Hudson and Connor have a really special chemistry, and we feel incredibly lucky to work with them,” says Quinn founder and CEO Caroline Spiegel. “The way they connect with audiences and show up in the cultural conversation is exciting to watch.”
The first two episodes will debut on Dec. 30, exclusively on Quinn, the leading audio erotica platform and the destination for female-first audio erotica. The company works with both non-celebrity narrators and voice actors, both known as “creators,” who tell stories directly to the audience members, placing the listener as the main character.
Since 2022, Quinn Originals has partnered with multiple recognizable actors to lead storytelling. Christopher Briney joined following the end of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Previously narrators include Andrew Scott, Tom Blyth, Jamie Campbell Bower, Manny Jacinto, Jesse Williams, Victoria Pedretti, Thomas Doherty, Lucien Laviscount and Katherine Moennig.
The new romance comes on the heels of the “Heated Rivalry” finale, which dropped on Dec. 26. The Canadian series was a massive hit for both Bell Media’s Crave streamer and HBO Max, once they bought it and decided to push it out this year instead of waiting until 2026. It’s since been renewed for a second season.
Casey Bloys was surprised when the show became such a quick smash hit for the streamer. “I thought it would be kind of a very specific, maybe gay-only show, but it really is a broader audience than that. From a business point of view, the money we spent for acquisition was an incredible investment,” he recently told Variety. “I’ve been at HBO for over 20 years. I’ve done a lot of shows with sex scenes. I think what was interesting about them here was, for anybody who has been closeted for any amount of time, and especially in the show — that kind of high-pressure situation of a professional sports team, where coming out is even harder — the sex was a little bit more reflective of that feeling of ‘You’re never going to find this again.’ It was intense, but to me, it amplified what they were trying to do with the storytelling. That said, I’m not complaining that they were attractive and hot. And I will say, as I told Jacob [Tierney], very well-directed.”
See exclusive photos from “Ember & Ice” below:
