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Canadian rising star Jack Innanen was offered a role on Heated Rivalry season 2, EW can confirm.
The actor, who long campaigned for a part, ultimately could not accept due to production conflicts.
Innanen stars in FX’s Adults and Netflix’s Big Mistakes.
No one seemed to want a Heated Rivalry season 2 role for Jack Innanen more than Jack Innanen. The lovable and charismatic Canadian star of FX’s Adults and Netflix’s Big Mistakes added fuel to the fan-casting fire with his vocal social media campaign to play Troy Barrett, Wyatt Hayes, or one of the other newcomer characters coming to the hockey romance saga down the line.
Sadly, anyone hoping to see his mustachioed self opposite Hudson Williams‘ Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie‘s Ilya Rozanov in 2027 may be disappointed.
After Innanen let slip to press in April that he had “conversations” about Heated Rivalry season 2, a source close to production confirms to Entertainment Weekly that the actor received an offer for a starring role but was unable to accept due to production conflicts.
No further specifics are confirmed at this time. However, if we are to speculate…
Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, and Jack Innanen on ‘Big Mistakes’
Credit: Netflix
Innanen starred in season 1 of the Dan Levy– and Rachel Sennott-created Big Mistakes as Max, the son of Elizabeth Perkins’ Annette and the boyfriend-turned-fiancé of Taylor Ortega’s Morgan. Given the half-hour crime-comedy’s success, Netflix recently announced a renewal for season 2. Production will return to New Jersey, and Innanen is confirmed to reprise his character.
Season 2 of Heated Rivalry is expected to begin filming later this summer ahead of a spring 2027 premiere on Crave (which produces the show) in Canada, and on HBO Max in the U.S. and other international territories.
The sophomore run will largely adapt the events of author Rachel Reid’s 2022 book The Long Game. Fans of this romance world have long dream-cast Innanen primarily as one of two characters. The first was Troy Barrett, a trade for the Ottawa Centaurs, Ilya’s new team, who gets his own standalone love story with Reid’s Role Model (2021), set during the same timeframe as The Long Game.
The other was Wyatt Hayes, another prominent hockey player from this romance universe who previously played with Troy on the Toronto Guardians team.
Jack Innanen on ‘Adults’ season 1
Credit: Rafy/FX
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Showrunner Jacob Tierney confirmed that Troy will be a character on Heated Rivalry season 2 during a panel at BookCon in New York City this past April.
“There is an easy, facile way of looking at Role Model,” he said at the event. “It’s very ‘grumpy sunshine.’ It’s very ‘apple orchard.’ It can drift into things that you want, but Troy is a really damaged guy. And Troy is quite damaged on the show. I would say we’re digging into that even harder.”
Innanen will next be seen on screen returning to his breakout role of Paul Baker in Adults. The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival will host the world premiere of season 2 in New York City on June 11, ahead of the show’s August 27 premiere on FX and Hulu.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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