The second season of hockey romance drama Heated Rivalry will star Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie as Troy Barrett and Harris Drover, adapting Rachel Reid’s fifth Game Changers novel, Role Model. The casting has prompted social-media criticism, and the article says Reid has addressed the backlash, although the supplied text does not include her response.

The show follows the secret relationship between rival hockey players Shane and Ilya, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. Collider reports it averaged 10.6 million US viewers per episode on HBO Max, with viewership doubling after its 26 December finale, making it the platform’s most-watched acquired scripted series.