Heated Rivalry season 2 cast and April 2027 release date: the new names include a Resident Evil star
Television's horniest hockey show is reloading with an NHL villain, a Young Royals prince, and the most unexpected therapist casting of the year.
Heated Rivalry season 2 has a target date — April 2027 — and a new cast list that reads like someone let the group chat make the hires. Cameras have been rolling in Canada since August, with the shoot running through year's end on another six episodes, and creator Jacob Tierney went on CBS Mornings to manage expectations in the show's native register:
"There will be more Heated Rivalry on your TVs truly as soon as humanly possible."
His interim advice to fans — "enjoy the yearn" — is also, functionally, the franchise's mission statement.
The headline hire
The Resident Evil star in question is Milla Jovovich, who joins as Dr. Galina Molchalina, a Russian therapist working with Ilya on his depression and anxiety. The woman who spent two decades executing zombies in slow motion will now be doing talk therapy with a sad Russian hockey star, and the show is better for how seriously it takes that second job — Ilya's mental health was season 1's load-bearing wall.
The rest of the intake, per the casting announcements:
- Paul Gross — Canadian royalty, for the Canadians — as NHL commissioner Roger Crowell, a major villain of Rachel Reid's books
- Kevin Zegers as Coach Wiebe, running Ilya's Ottawa bench
- Charlie Gillespie as Troy Barrett and Justice Smith as social media manager Harris Drover — the Role Model pairing, imported to seed the next romance
- Edvin Ryding (Young Royals), Emily Hampshire, Sabrina Jalees, and Priyanka, among others
Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie return as Shane and Ilya, with the season drawing mainly on The Long Game — the book that picks up the couple after the cottage reveal — plus threads from Tough Guy and Role Model.
Why everyone moved this fast
The scheduling tells the story: season 1 premiered November 28, 2025, and was renewed by December 12 — two weeks, start to greenlight. It became Crave's most-watched original ever, grew its audience nearly 400% in week one, averaged 10.6 million viewers by February, and episode five briefly held a perfect 10 on IMDb. HBO is planning a splashy New York premiere for the new season in the spring. April 2027, then — seventeen months of yearn, officially sanctioned.
Previously we wrote: Dept. Q season 2 release date and cast: Netflix films in Edinburgh until December — and one season 1 regular isn't coming back
