{"id":33964,"date":"2026-08-09T05:19:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T00:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33964"},"modified":"2026-08-09T05:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T00:19:03","slug":"rachel-reid-dismisses-troy-harris-casting-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33964","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reid Dismisses Troy, Harris Casting Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/rachel-reid\/\" id=\"auto-tag_rachel-reid_1\" data-tag=\"rachel-reid\">Rachel Reid<\/a> is pushing back against negative comments about <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/heated-rivalry\/\" id=\"auto-tag_heated-rivalry_1\" data-tag=\"heated-rivalry\">Heated Rivalry<\/a><\/em>\u2018s latest <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/heated-rivalry-season-2-troy-harris-cast-announcement-1236643726\/\">season two casting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The author, who wrote the novels that the show is based upon, took to Instagram Friday to weigh into online debate about the casting of the characters Troy Barrett and Harris Drover in the upcoming season. It was announced Friday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/charlie-gillespie\/\" id=\"auto-tag_charlie-gillespie_1\" data-tag=\"charlie-gillespie\">Charlie Gillespie<\/a>\u00a0was cast as Troy,\u00a0a professional hockey player who is traded to the Ottawa Centaurs in Reid\u2019s source material, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/justice-smith\/\" id=\"auto-tag_justice-smith_1\" data-tag=\"justice-smith\">Justice Smith<\/a> was cast as Harris, the team\u2019s social media manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThinking about all the people last summer who told me the casting for Ilya and Shane was wrong and bad\u2026\u201d she wrote on an Instagram story.<\/p>\n<p>Some fans online were criticizing the decision to cast a \u201cskinny\u201d actor to play the character of Harris, who was described as chubbier than the hockey players of the book.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHarris and Troy\u2019s budding relationship drives Reid\u2019s novel\u00a0<em>Role Model<\/em>, the fifth installment of her\u00a0<em>Game Changers<\/em>\u00a0series, which\u00a0<em>Heated Rivalry<\/em>\u00a0the series is based on. \u201cRachel Reid has given us two beautifully layered characters in Harris and Troy who you can\u2019t help but root for,\u201d showrunner\u00a0Jacob Tierney\u00a0and executive producer Brendan Brady said in a release about the casting. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cFrom the start of the casting process, we knew we were looking for actors who could create something truly special together and bring that same depth and heart to the screen. Justice and Charlie do exactly that,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThey immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters, bringing an instinctive understanding of who Harris and Troy are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOttawa is expected to be the season two home for main character <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-features\/connor-storrie-heated-rivalry-interview-1236444072\/\">Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie<\/a>, who moves to the low-ranking Canadian team. The Russian hockey player made the decision to move to the team in the finale of the show\u2019s first season to be closer to\u00a0<em>Heated Rivalry<\/em>\u2019s other main character and his now-boyfriend,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-features\/heated-rivalry-hudson-williams-interview-1236449733\/\">Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCrave\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/heated-rivalry-renewed-season-2-hbo-max-crave-1236449140\/\">renewed\u00a0<em>Heated Rivalry<\/em>\u00a0for a second season<\/a>\u00a0early into the show\u2019s first season run. HBO Max has confirmed it will continue to air the series. The show will begin shooting its second season this month and is\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/heated-rivalry-season-2-release-date-filming-1236516091\/\">aiming for a spring 2027 release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tTierney serves as writer, director and executive producer on the series. Brady and Jayme Alter Wilson serve as executive producers, alongside Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje as producers. Reid serves as a consulting producer. Mike Goldbach joins season two as co-writer alongside Tierney.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Reid is pushing back against negative comments about Heated Rivalry\u2018s latest season two casting. The author, who wrote the novels that the show is based upon, took to Instagram Friday to weigh into online debate about the casting of the characters Troy Barrett and Harris Drover in the upcoming season. It was announced Friday&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2248296283-e1786233844892.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}