Heated Rivalry Season 2 Casts Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi as Ryan and Fabian

We just knew this announcement was coming. After Crave’s last batch of casting announcements, it felt inevitable that Ryan Price and Fabian Salah would eventually make their way into Heated Rivalry Season 2. The only question was when Crave would make it official. Well, that day has arrived, and we finally have our Ryan and our Fabian: Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi.

Diemer (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Half of It) has been cast as Ryan Price, while Jafargholi (War, The Agency, Lost Boys and Fairies) will play Fabian Salah. The two join Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Emily Hampshire, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor, Sabrina Jalees, and Priyanka in the ever-growing Heated Rivalry Season 2 cast.

And yes, this is exactly the casting announcement we predicted at the end of our last piece. Once Vanessa (Emily Hampshire) and Tarek (Priyanka) were confirmed, both of whom are part of Fabian’s close-knit friend group in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers books, it was only a matter of time before the official main couple of Tough Guy made its way onto our screens.

In a statement, creators Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady shared what they were looking for when casting the beloved couple: “Fabian and Ryan each bring a distinctive energy to the world Rachel Reid has created,” they said. “They are bold, complicated, and deeply compelling characters, and finding actors who could really take on all of those different sides was so important to us. Daniel and Shaheen bring such confidence and emotional honesty to the roles. We can’t wait for audiences to see what they do with Fabian and Ryan and how they make these characters their own.”

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For anyone who hasn’t made it through all six Game Changers books yet, as we shared, Ryan and Fabian are the central couple of Tough Guy, the third book in the series. Their story takes us away from Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya’s (Connor Storrie) world, and into a very different kind of hockey romance, one built around a professional enforcer who is beginning to question the life he’s built for himself and the childhood crush who never quite left his heart.

Ryan is a longtime NHL (MLH in the show) enforcer who has spent his career being valued primarily for his ability to fight rather than for the defensive skills he desperately wants his teams to recognize. He’s also been quietly out for years, while struggling privately with anxiety and the physical and emotional toll of his career. Fabian, meanwhile, is an openly gay indie musician and fixture of Toronto’s queer scene who has spent much of his life actively trying to distance himself from hockey. The two first met as teenagers when Ryan’s family billeted him with Fabian’s family in Halifax, and their reunion years later brings all those unresolved feelings rushing back.

And if you’ve read Tough Guy, you already know that their story is about considerably more than childhood crushes finally becoming something real. Ryan and Fabian’s relationship forces both men to confront the things they’ve been running from, while Ryan begins questioning whether the hockey career he’s sacrificed so much for is actually making him happy. Their story also expands the Game Changers universe in some pretty meaningful ways, connecting back to characters we’ve already met and eventually to Shane and Ilya’s own efforts to make hockey a more inclusive place.

That’s particularly important for Heated Rivalry Season 2 because we’re already seeing the series build out the interconnected world around Shane and Ilya. Troy (Charlie Gillespie), Luca (Edvin Ryding), and Wyatt (Robert Naylor) are helping establish Ilya’s life with the Ottawa Centaurs, while Farah (Sabrina Jalees) gives us the agent who represents both halves of our favorite couple. Now, with Ryan and Fabian officially joining the cast, another major corner of Rachel Reid’s universe is making its way onto the screen.

And honestly, if you’re a Heated Rivalry fan who hasn’t read Tough Guy yet, this might be your sign. We’re not going to spoil what happens to Ryan and Fabian, but there’s plenty in their story that could give us a better idea of the characters, relationships, and emotional baggage we’re likely to see woven into Season 2. Plus, now that we know who is playing them, we have a whole new reason to revisit the book while we wait.

With Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi now officially part of the cast, we’re getting a much clearer picture of just how much of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers universe Season 2 plans to bring to the screen.

And considering the casting announcements have been arriving at an increasingly impressive speed, we’re guessing we won’t have to wait too long to find out what comes next. Could the rest of the Ottawa Centaurs be next? Or are we finally getting the casting announcements everyone has been waiting for most: Anya and Chiron? Because at this point, the dogs deserve top billing too.

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Heated Rivalry Season 2 is set to premiere in Spring 2027. Season 1 of Heated Rivalry is available to stream on Crave (Canada), HBO Max (U.S. & Other Regions), Sky (New Zealand, UK), and Movistar Plus+ (Spain). Follow us on X and Instagram for all queer stuff!

Featured Image: Image Courtesy of Crave and HBO Max.