‘Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams Wants To “Break The Idea Of Shane” In Other Projects: “There’s A Lot I Want To Do”

As Heated Rivalry fans patiently await a second season of LGBTQ hockey romance, Hudson Williams wants to show off his range.

The actor, who plays closeted Montreal Metros captain Shane Hollander on the Crave/HBO Max series, recently teased what other projects he has on the horizon, explaining that he doesn’t “want every role to be ‘square guy in a romance’” following his breakout on the Jacob Tierney-created series.

“I’ve got projects in the inbox. I want to do a few things before season two,” he told co-star Sophie Nélisse in a conversation for Wonderland. “I want to break the idea of Shane. I love him, but I don’t want every role to be ‘square guy in a romance.’ I want to do other stuff. Eventually, I want to do theatre. Broadway. A musical, after singing lessons. There’s a lot I want to do in the next two years.”

Williams also opened up about trying to seperate himself from Shane, the character from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series.

“I think I was trying to show another side of myself after Heated Rivalry,” he explained. “I have a cocky side – ‘F-ck you, this is me’ – but I also have a soft, quiet, scared side. I decided to show that. Some directors have seen my short films and were like, ‘Oh.’ I never thought they’d reference those films as a reason to cast me. I made them for two dollars and a camcorder.”

Connor Storrie, who plays Ilya Rozanov on Heated Rivalryrecently gave an update on the Season 2 production timeline, predicting that the series could resume filming soon.

“I think Jacob’s still writing it. I think we’re going to be filming, I don’t know when, exactly,” said Storrie on Todayas co-host Craig Melvin asked if production could start by summer. “Yeah, I think about then.”

After Heated Rivalry was renewed for Season 2, Tierney told Deadline that it will be based on The Long Gamethe only other current book in the series that focuses on Ilya and Shane (Reid’s Unrivaled resumes the story on Sept. 29).

“I don’t have details. I have not started writing, so I’m not just trying to be evasive. I genuinely don’t know yet,” he prefaced last month. “I’m so lucky to have a whole world of books here to grab things from, to use, to add color, to add context, to add story. I can tell you I’m really excited to get back to writing. I’m excited to get back into this world with them, and I’m looking forward to it.

“I guess, here’s what I can say too, is that Heated Rivalry will always be centered around Shane and Ilya, this show. But we have a whole universe here, and so there’s loads of other things that we’re thinking about and that we’re gonna explore and that we’re gonna start to take more seriously now that we know that there’s an audience for it. And that’s pretty exciting, so I’m looking forward to really digging into this world,: added Tierney.