{"id":35961,"date":"2026-08-10T06:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35961"},"modified":"2026-08-10T06:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:27:23","slug":"justice-smith-responds-to-being-cast-as-harris-in-heated-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35961","title":{"rendered":"Justice Smith Responds to Being Cast as Harris in Heated Rivalry"},"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>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/justice-smith\/\" id=\"auto-tag_justice-smith_1\" data-tag=\"justice-smith\">Justice Smith<\/a> is speaking out following the news he\u2019s joining season two of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/heated-rivalry\/\" id=\"auto-tag_heated-rivalry_1\" data-tag=\"heated-rivalry\">Heated Rivalry<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe 31-year-old actor has been cast as Harris Drover in the hit Crave-HBO Max show. He and Charlie Gillespie, who will play Troy Barrett, join in leading roles alongside Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI have to say I am moved by the support and love I\u2019m getting from fans in my DMs, fans who have welcomed me with open arms and who already feel a responsibility to protect me,\u201d the actor said in an Instagram story post. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSome fans online have criticized the decision to cast a non-plus sized actor to play the character of Harris, who was described as chubbier than the hockey players of the book. \u201cI am honored to play a character you all care about deeply and I promise I will take good care of him if you give me the chance. I am beyond excited for this experience.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHowever, many online were quick to defend the casting, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/rachel-reid\/\" id=\"auto-tag_rachel-reid_1\" data-tag=\"rachel-reid\">Rachel Reid<\/a>, who wrote the novels <em>Heated Rivalry<\/em> is based upon. \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 shortly after the casting news was announced Friday. <\/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>Justice Smith is speaking out following the news he\u2019s joining season two of Heated Rivalry. The 31-year-old actor has been cast as Harris Drover in the hit Crave-HBO Max show. He and Charlie Gillespie, who will play Troy Barrett, join in leading roles alongside Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. \u201cI have to say I am&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35962,"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-2281014882-e1786314348755.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35961","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\/35961","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=35961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}