Justice Smith is joining Heated Rivalry Season 2 as Harris Drover, with Charlie Gillespie cast opposite him as Troy Barrett. Production on the second season started earlier this week in Canada, putting the series back in motion just as the show moves beyond its original central pair.
That timing matters because Season 2 is already locked for a spring 2027 premiere, and the new casting gives the next chapter a clearer shape. Fans looking for what comes next are getting a season that keeps Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in play while adding Harris and Troy to the story.
Smith’s role puts him at the center of one of the show’s biggest shifts. Jacob Tierney said the new season will continue Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s story by taking on Book 6, The Long Game, while also introducing a new couple through Role Model. In the source material, Troy Barrett is a hockey player with a history of bullying, while Harris Drover is a friendly social media manager, a pairing that gives the second season a different emotional register from the first.
Season 1 adapted Book 2, Heated Rivalry, and also pulled from Book 1, Game Changer, after its late 2025 release turned the series into an instant global phenomenon. The show streams on HBO Max in the U.S. and in more than 130 countries, which helps explain why even a cast addition now carries so much weight for viewers outside Canada as well.
Tierney’s comments suggest the production is not treating Harris and Troy as an afterthought to the returning romance. He said Rachel Reid has written two layered characters in Harris and Troy, and that he and the casting team wanted actors who could bring depth and heart to the screen. He added that Smith and Gillespie immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of the characters.
The unresolved question is how much room Season 2 has to balance two storylines at once. The new leads are being introduced while Shane and Ilya’s arc continues, which means the season will have to widen its focus without losing the chemistry that made the first installment break out in the first place. That is the test now, not whether the audience will notice the new couple, but whether the show can carry both stories with equal force.
For Smith, the casting puts him in a series entering its next phase with production already underway and a spring 2027 return on the calendar. For viewers, the key thing is simple: Heated Rivalry is not just coming back, it is expanding, and Harris Drover is set to be part of that expansion from the start.
