Popverse's top stories

• Critical Role's The Mighty Nein showrunner, Tasha Huo, reveals a Campaign 2 scene that didn't make it into the Prime Video adaptation
• Katey Sagal on what she appreciates about her One Piece character: "I loved that she was an older woman who just kept her shit together and wasn’t afraid to wear tight t-shirts"
• There's a controversial lost Berserk chapter that creator Kentarou Miura blocked from being collected, and its about God (and God being evil)

Potential spoilers for Heated Rivalry season 2 follow.

I'm sure I'm not surprising you by saying that Heated Rivalry, the queer hockey romance that became one of 2025's biggest hist for HBO Max, is already on its way to a second season. Further, you probably won't be shocked to learn that, since the first season adapted the novel Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, the upcoming season will adapt its sequel, The Long Game. But what may shock even you, my unfazeable friend, is that season 2 won't be the only season to adapt Long Game - it appears likely the next novel will require two seasons to complete onscreen.

And even more surprising? The person helming its adaptation is actually adding material.

The creative in question is Jacob Tierney, the showrunner and creator of Heated Rivalry's TV series. In a recent interview with Deadline, Tierney hinted that the follow-up to Shane Hollander and Ilya Rosanov’s steamy relationship drama would take more than one TV season to adapt.

"Who said I’m doing it all?" Tierney aid of the full Long Game plot. "There’s a lot of material."

And he's right. The aptly named Long Game explores the next chapter in Rosanov and Hollander's relationship over the course of 416 pages, so you could see why the veteran Letterkenny producer would be planning for it to take up both Heated Rivalry season 2 and Heated Rivalry season 3. But as we alluded to earlier, that fact is still not stopping him from adding even more to the scripts.

Speaking to Loon Call, a podcast dedicated to Reid's Game Changers series from which Heated Rivalry stems, Tierney says that the writers are planning on including a season 2 moment that happens off-page in The Long Game.

"In (spoiler!) season two," Tierney said, "I’m gonna have to do Shane coming out to his team. I can’t do that off screen. That’s not how TV works [...] I can’t have somebody tell you about a thing that is that important that happened, you have to see it. You have to experience it yourself."

So there you go, Heated Rivalry fans. By the time that the show is over, you'll have spent more time with Ilya and Shane than you could even get in the novels. You'll also just have to spend a lot of time waiting to get there.

Heated Rivalry season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max. Heated Rivalry season 2 is expected April 2027.

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A genre fiction literary column called If It Bleeds, We Read

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.