Jacob Tierney is dishing on the upcoming second season of Heated Rivalry!
The creator, writer, director and producer of the hit Crave series, based on the Rachel Reid “Game Changers” book series, appeared at BookCon with the author and teased what’s to come in the highly-anticipated new season.
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“It’s different. It really is different,” Jacob shared on stage, via Variety. “And the challenge of it is, from an adaptation point of view, is that you’re in much more serious territory. A lot of the initial — there’s still lots of flirting and lots of sex — but this kind of danger, this kind of hotel-room-adolescent-sex stuff is largely gone. And so it presents really new challenges.”
Unlike the first season, Jacob is not taking on writing duties alone, as he’s tapped Michael Goldbach to help adapt “The Long Game” and “Role Model” for season two. It was previously revealed that Troy Barrett and Harris Drover’s love story from ‘Role Model’ will woven into the new season.
“Part of the reason you start off with ‘Heated Rivalry,’ as far as adapting goes, is because you want to get to ‘The Long Game,’” Jacob said. “Because ‘The Long Game’ is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously. What I’ve always said about this show is there are a lot of books — ‘Game Changer’ is in ‘Heated Rivalry’ and obviously, as I think you guys all know by now — obviously parts of ‘Role Model’ are going to be in [Season 2], to the great surprise of absolutely nobody. But Ilya and Shane are the heartbeat of this series, of my show. It’s always going to be about Ilya and Shane, that is what is the trajectory that runs through it as their world expands.”
“In ‘Long Game’ you are like, OK, we’re here to ground this in something that feels very real,” he added. “And the same thing with Troy and Harris, right. I think there’s an easy, fascicle way of looking at ‘Role Model’ as it’s very grumpy/sunshine, it’s very apple orchard. It can drift into things that you want. But Troy is a really damaged guy. And Troy is quite damaged on the show. I would say we are digging into that even harder. Because that’s what’s interesting.”
If you missed it, a popular TikTok star/actor, who has campaigned to be cast in season two, recently hinted that he’s had conversations about joining the show!
Season two will begin filming in August and debut in April 2027.
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