Is ‘Heated Rivalry’ season 2 changing the books? The casting choice that has fans talking

Highlights

• Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi are joining Heated Rivalry season 2 as Ryan Price and Fabian Salah.
• Their romance comes from Tough Guy, the third book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series.
• The new season is already drawing from multiple books, expanding the story beyond Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

Heated Rivalry may have started with Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, but season 2 is making it clear that their relationship will no longer be the show's only major love story.

Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi have joined the second season as Ryan Price and Fabian Salah, a new couple whose story comes from Rachel Reid’s Tough Guy, the third book in the Game Changers series.

Diemer, known for The Half of It and Percy Jackson and the Olympians, will play Ryan, a professional hockey enforcer who appears tough on the ice while privately dealing with anxiety. Jafargholi, whose credits include War, The Agency and Lost Boys and Fairies, will play Fabian, an aspiring musician.

The characters were already quietly connected to the television adaptation. Ryan was briefly mentioned during season 1 when Shane and Ilya discussed their time playing in Boston. Now, that passing reference is becoming a full storyline.

Season 2 is pulling from more than one book

This is where the casting becomes particularly interesting.

Season 2 is primarily adapting The Long Game, Rachel Reid’s sixth Game Changers novel, which continues Shane and Ilya’s story after they have committed to a relationship and are trying to build a life together while keeping it private.

But the series is also drawing from Role Model, which follows Troy Barrett and Harris Drover, and now Tough Guy, which centers on Ryan and Fabian. That means the second season isn’t simply taking the next Shane-and-Ilya book and putting it on screen.

Instead, the show is bringing together characters and romances from different parts of Reid’s wider universe. Ryan and Fabian’s story also places the action within the same hockey world as other season 2 characters, with Ryan playing for Toronto alongside Troy and Wyatt.

The casting could change how the season feels

The expansion gives season 2 a very different challenge from the first.

Season 1 was built around the intense, complicated relationship between Shane and Ilya, two hockey stars whose rivalry gradually became something much more personal. Now, the show has several relationships operating across the same professional hockey world.

Troy and Harris bring another romance into the mix, while Ryan and Fabian introduce a couple with their own emotional complications. That gives the series more room to explore different experiences rather than making every storyline revolve around the same two players.

It also means viewers familiar with Reid’s books will have more than one storyline to watch for when the new season arrives.

Ryan and Fabian could be the season’s new breakout couple

The show’s producers appear aware of the expectations surrounding the new characters.

“Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy” to Reid’s world, series executive producers Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady said, describing them as “bold, complicated, and deeply compelling” characters. They also praised Diemer and Jafargholi for bringing “confidence and emotional honesty” to the roles.

Their casting therefore isn’t simply another pair of names being added to an already expanding ensemble. Ryan and Fabian bring another established romance from the books into the television series, potentially giving viewers a new couple to become invested in while Shane and Ilya’s story continues.

For Heated Rivalry, the bigger question is no longer just what happens next to its original couple. It’s how much of Rachel Reid’s wider universe the show is now preparing to bring to the screen.