Most streaming hits make their audiences wait years between seasons and hope the cast is still free when the cameras return. Heated Rivalry, the Crave hockey romance that turned Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams from complete unknowns into global stars, is reportedly doing the opposite: shooting everything now, while the heat lasts. According to sources, the Canadian series is filming not one but two new seasons back-to-back, with a feature film lined up straight after.

As Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva first reported in her column The Dish, both upcoming seasons will run six episodes each, like the first. The film is described as a Christmas special, or a holiday-themed episode, and it is meant for cinemas rather than the streamer’s menu. The twist is who carries it: Storrie’s Ilya and Williams’ Shane are reportedly not in it. The story centres instead on the show’s other couple, Scott and Kip, played by François Arnaud and Robbie G.K. A Crave representative said there were no projects to confirm.

The choice of couple has a clear literary anchor. Rachel Reid, whose bestselling Game Changers novels the show adapts, has already written a short story, Merry Christmas, Scott and Kip!, about the pair’s first Christmas together. The leads, meanwhile, are in demand elsewhere: Storrie has been circling a role opposite Ryan Gosling in Marvel’s Ghost Rider.

The theatrical ambition already has a test case running. Regal is screening the first season as paired episodes for a limited run at Regal, AMC and Cinemark locations. Deadline reported that 880 theatres collected $420,000 on Friday, pointing to an opening weekend of around $1.3 million, for a series that already streams on HBO Max in the US and several other key territories.

The back-to-back plan also explains an old rumour. In a leaked Cameo video in August, recurring guest star Dylan Walsh said, “I think we’re doing 12 [episodes] this time,” which some fans read as a supersized second season. Creator Jacob Tierney told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM last month that Season 2 would again run six episodes, and that filming would be done by the end of the year, without saying what the shoot covered. Two six-episode seasons would square both accounts.

Season 2 is confirmed for spring 2027, with an April launch likely. It is expected to continue Shane and Ilya’s story through The Long Game, the sixth book, and to introduce the Role Model couple Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, played by Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie. Emily Hampshire, Brendan Morgan, David Tomlinson and Lauren Chan are among the new cast additions. The two seasons are due to wrap at the end of November or in early December, with the film shooting in December for a theatrical release the following December.

Almost a year after its November 28 premiere, Heated Rivalry is still in production. When it returns to a cinema screen for the holidays, the two rivals who made it a phenomenon may not be in the frame.

Tags: production-start, Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Heated Rivalry, Crave, François Arnaud