Rivals showrunner Jacob Tierney is in the midst of writing Season 2 of the hockey romance series, which he says will take Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Story) into “much more serious territory” than the lovers in the first film.
“It’s different. It’s really different,” Tierney said Saturday during a panel discussion alongside Rachel Reid, author of “Heated Rivals,” at BookCon at New York’s Javits Center. “And the challenge with this, from an adaptation standpoint, is that we’re getting into more serious territory. There’s still a lot of the early stuff, which is a lot of flirting and sex, but this kind of danger, this kind of adolescent sex in hotel rooms, things like that, are mostly gone. And that really presents new challenges.”
Tierney brought on Michael Goldback as co-writer for Season 2 of “Heated Rivals” to help with the process, as the production team wants to release new episodes quickly amid the huge popularity of the Crave/HBO Max show’s first season. Based on Reed’s book “The Long Game” (a sequel to “Heat Rivalry” and part of Reed’s overall “Game Changer” series), Season 2’s story is more complex than the plot of the show’s first season, as Shane and Elijah go through a slow-paced romance and then face the reality of being in a relationship.
“When it comes to adaptation, one of the reasons we start with ‘Heated Rivals’ is because we want to get to the ‘long game,'” Tierney said. “Because ‘The Long Game’ is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously. What I always say about this show is that there are so many books. ‘Game Changer’ is in ‘Heated Rivals,’ and I’m sure you all know that Ming. Obviously parts of ‘Role Models’ will be in[Season 2]which is no surprise to anyone at all. But Elijah and Shane are the heart of this series, my show. It’s always been about Elijah and Shane, and that’s the trajectory that runs through this piece as their world expands.”
Tierney joked that he referred to Reed’s The Long Game book as a “marriage sex scene” and pointed out that the big fight between Shane and Elijah was one of his favorite scenes in the story.
“In Bergmanian terms, what do you do when the onslaught of danger passes and you have to live in a relationship where you’re not communicating as well as you’d like?” Tierney said. “You can say you love each other, but as any adult knows, there’s a lot more to a successful relationship than that.”
As Tierney confirmed, Reed’s book “Role Models” is part of the overall “Game Changers” novel series, but it’s about the relationship between hockey player Troy Barrett and team social media manager Harris Drover, not Shane and Elijah, and will be included in Season 2 of “Rivals.”
“With ‘The Long Game,’ it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re here to ground this in something that feels very real,'” Tierney said. “And the same thing with Troy and Harris, right? I think there’s an easy, short-sighted view of ‘Role Models’ because it’s so moody and sunny and so apple orchard-y. It can drift into whatever you want it to be. But Troy is a really damaged guy. And Troy is pretty damaged on the show. I would say we’re digging into that even more intently because that’s what makes it interesting.”
