Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi have joined the cast of Heated Rivalry Season 2, with Diemer set to play Ryan Price and Jafargholi cast as Fabian Salah. The additions give the series two more named roles as the hockey romantic drama moves deeper into production.
For Diemer, the casting adds another notable television credit after Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, along with his work in The Half of It. Jafargholi brings his own recent screen experience from HBO and Sky's War and Paramount+'s The Agency, making the pair a visible part of the show's next chapter.
Series creator, writer and director Jacob Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady said Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy to the world Rachel Reid created. They described the characters as bold, complicated and deeply compelling, and said finding actors who could handle their different sides mattered to them. They also said Diemer and Jafargholi bring confidence and emotional honesty to the roles.
The timing gives the announcement extra weight. Season 2 already had a large cast list, including Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Emily Hampshire, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor, Sabrina Jalees and Priyanka, but the new additions arrive while the series is still months away from its next release. The second season is expected to premiere on HBO Max in the spring of 2027 in the United States.
That gap helps explain why each casting reveal now matters. Heated Rivalry is a hockey romantic drama commissioned by Bell Media's Crave with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, and it is distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus, a Bell Media company. It is also available in more than 130 countries, which gives every new cast update a wider audience than a typical domestic drama announcement.
What remains unanswered is how Ryan Price and Fabian Salah fit into the story once the season arrives. For now, the project has more faces, a firmer ensemble and a long runway to its spring 2027 launch, with Diemer and Jafargholi among the names most likely to draw attention when the season finally lands.
