Emily Zemler
View all posts by Emily Zemler May 30, 2026
Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie in 'Heated Rivalry' Courtesy of HBO The wait for the second season of Heated Rivalry may be coming to an end. The show’s creator Jacob Tierney confirmed that he is currently hard at work writing Season 2 and hopes to deliver new episodes to fan “as soon as possible.”
Last night, Tierney accepted the Showrunner Award at the Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television in Los Angeles, where he offered a virtual speech. “Thank you so much to the Critics Choice Association for this amazing and unexpected honor,” Tierney said. “I’m so, so grateful, and I’m so sorry that I cannot be there to celebrate with all of you in person and accept this.”
He added, “I’m working very hard on Season 2 to get it out to people as soon as possible. I genuinely wish I could be there. I’m so moved by this.”
'Heated Rivalry's Jacob Tierney accepts the Showrunner Award via a pre-recorded video at the 3rd Critics Choice Celebration Of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television, while hard at work on Season 2https://t.co/qiKxTosUrB pic.twitter.com/QlGkdKPX2d
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 30, 2026
Tierney previously confirmed that Season 2 would begin shooting in August after he finishes writing the episodes. It’s set to be based on Rachel Reid’s book The Long Game, which continues the relationship between Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Although The Long Game is Reid’s final book in the series (for now), Tierney told Deadline last year there is a lot of story to tell.
“Season 2 will be based around The Long Game,” he said in December. “I don’t have details. I have not started writing, so I’m not just trying to be evasive. I genuinely don’t know yet. I’m so lucky to have a whole world of books here to grab things from, to use, to add color, to add context, to add story. I can tell you I’m really excited to get back to writing. I’m excited to get back into this world with them, and I’m looking forward to it.”
He added, “Here’s what I can say too, is that Heated Rivalry will always be centered around Shane and Ilya, this show. But we have a whole universe here, and so there’s loads of other things that we’re thinking about and that we’re gonna explore and that we’re gonna start to take more seriously now that we know that there’s an audience for it. And that’s pretty exciting, so I’m looking forward to really digging into this world.”
