Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie are joining the Season 2 cast of “Heated Rivalry,” the hit romantic drama from Canada’s Crave Media that airs on HBO Max in the U.S.
Smith will play Harris Drover and Gillespie will play Troy Barrett. While official character descriptions have not yet been provided by Crave and HBO Max, in Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” books, Troy is a hockey player who gets traded to the Ottawa team after severing ties with a former friend and teammate on the Toronto team who is accused of sexual assault. Harris is Ottawa’s social media manager, who becomes determined to get Troy out of his shell.
Smith and Gillespie will lead Season 2 alongside returning stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who had their breakout roles in Season 1 as Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, respectively. Season 1, per the official logline, followed “what began as a secret fling between two fresh-faced rookies” and “evolved into a years-long journey of love, denial and self-discovery.”
Smith, whose credits include “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” is repped by WME and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Gillespie, who has appeared in “One Night Only,” “Splitsville” and “Suze,” is repped by Vanderwerff Talent, David Dean Management and Meyer & Downs, LLP.
“Heated Rivalry” is commissioned by Crave, owned by Bell Media, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund. Jacob Tierney created the series and serves as director while executive producing alongside Brendan Brady and Jayme Alter Wilson. Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje serve as producers, with Reid as consulting producer. Mike Goldbach is a co-writer on Season 2. Bell’s Sphere Abacus distributes the series internationally.
“Rachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can’t help but root for,” Tierney and Brady said in a statement. “From the start of the casting process, we knew we were looking for actors who could create something truly special together and bring that same depth and heart to the screen. Justice and Charlie do exactly that. They immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters, bringing an instinctive understanding of who Harris and Troy are.”
