Actors Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie have been cast in the second season of Heated Rivalry in important roles. The sports romance series is set to star Gillespie in the role of Troy Barrett, who is a hockey player sold to the Ottawa Centaurs team in the Game Changers books written by Rachel Reid. On the other hand, Smith has been roped in to play the social media manager of the team, namely Harris Drover. They join Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, the hockey players who have long been engaged in a clandestine romantic relationship even as they represent rival teams.

Barrett and Drover's emerging relationship fuels the central narrative of Role Model, which is the fifth novel in Reid's Game Changers books.

Executive producer Brendan Brady and showrunner/writer/director Jacob Tierney have delivered a statement where they praised Reid for providing the series with "beautifully layered characters" in Barrett and Drover that audiences could root for. They also mentioned that the actors connected with Barrett and Drover's resilience and vulnerability and bring an understanding of these characters that feels instinctive.

Heated Rivalry season 1 is an adaptation of the eponymous second novel in Reid's books. On the other, the second season will be based on Role Model and The Long Game, which are the fifth and sixth instalments in Reid's series of novels, and it is also set to continue the story of Williams and Storrie's characters. Interestingly, Storrie and Williams were employed as waiters at the time they landed the roles in the series. After the premiere of the first season in November last year, they became instantly popular.

The second season is set to go on floors later this August, with a release planned for early next year.