Heated Rivalry is about the down-low romance between two hockey players: the Canadian good-guy Shane Hollander, played by 24-year-old Hudson Williams, and the Russian Ilya Rozanov, played by real-life Texan Connor Storrie, 25. You might recognise Storrie from the 2024 film Joker: Folie à Deux (his character kills Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker), but neither actor looked earmarked for huge fame. Both were waiting tables when they came to audition for Heated Rivalry. Storrie wasn’t having much luck at that, either. During an appearance on the Today Show, Storrie told the story of how, on the day he learned he’d landed the part in Heated Rivalry, he’d received a dressing-down from his manager: “I messed up a table so bad.” Production on the series began about a week later.