Heated Rivalry Just Found Its Next Gay Hockey Couple

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Heated Rivalry Just Found Its Next Gay Hockey Couple

Shane and Ilya are getting company.

Heated Rivalry has officially cast Ryan Price and Fabian Salah for season two, adding another major gay romance from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers universe to the show.

Daniel Diemer will play Ryan, while Shaheen Jafargholi will play Fabian.

And if you already know Tough Guy, you know this is not a tiny supporting-story announcement.

Ryan and Fabian are the couple at the center of that book.

Meet Ryan Price

Ryan is a former hockey enforcer whose intimidating reputation on the ice hides a much more vulnerable man underneath.

By the time his story intersects with the wider Heated Rivalry world, he has moved into coaching and becomes connected to Shane and Ilya through a summer hockey camp.

Daniel Diemer steps into the role after appearances in projects including The Half of It and Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Rachel Reid herself had a wonderfully affectionate reaction to the casting.

She referred to Ryan as her “big sad son.”

Which, frankly, tells readers of Tough Guy almost everything they need to know. 😂

And Then There’s Fabian

Fabian Salah is Ryan’s very different counterpart.

He is a musician, far removed from Ryan’s hockey-enforcer world, and their relationship gives Tough Guy much of its emotional tension and charm.

Shaheen Jafargholi, known from Lost Boys & Fairies and The Agency, has been cast as Fabian.

Reid’s description for him?

Her “rockstar son.” ❤️

The pairing instantly gives season two another dynamic that looks very different from Shane and Ilya.

And that is probably a good thing.

Season Two Is Becoming Much Bigger

The success of Heated Rivalry could easily have led producers to simply keep the focus tightly on Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

Instead, season two appears to be expanding the world around them.

Ryan and Fabian join another previously announced couple, Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, played by Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie.

That means the series is starting to look less like one central gay hockey romance with supporting characters and more like an interconnected ensemble of queer love stories.

For fans of Reid’s books, that makes perfect sense.

The Game Changers novels were always built around multiple couples whose lives overlap through hockey, friendships and relationships.

Now the television adaptation appears increasingly willing to embrace that structure too.

Ryan And Fabian Still Connect Back To Shane And Ilya

Importantly, Ryan and Fabian are not being dropped into some completely separate corner of the show.

Their story connects with Shane and Ilya’s world.

That gives season two room to expand without abandoning the couple who made Heated Rivalry such a phenomenon in the first place.

It also means viewers who have never read Tough Guy should not need homework before meeting them.

Ryan can enter through the hockey world.

Fabian enters through Ryan.

And suddenly Shane and Ilya are surrounded by considerably more gay romantic chaos than they had in season one.

Apparently One Gay Hockey Couple Was Never Going To Be Enough

The fan reaction to the announcement was immediate.

Crave’s official casting post quickly attracted tens of thousands of likes and a flood of comments from viewers who already knew exactly who Ryan and Fabian were.

Others were simply discovering that Heated Rivalry season two intends to keep adding attractive men and queer storylines at an impressive rate.

We see the strategy.

And we support it. 😂🏒🌈

Season two is currently in production and is expected to arrive on Crave in spring 2027.

By then, Shane and Ilya may no longer be the only couple everybody is obsessing over.

Meet Ryan and Fabian.

Something tells us they’re about to become very popular. ❤️

📷 @cravecanada

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Fans Think They Found The Real-Life Shane & Ilya — But Their Actual Love Story Is Even Better

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Fans Think They Found The Real-Life Shane & Ilya — But Their Actual Love Story Is Even Better

At first glance, Tom Garneau and Damien Verhaegen look like they wandered straight out of Heated Rivalry.

There are hockey photos.

There is kissing.

There is a handsome Canadian couple looking very comfortable together around a rink.

So naturally, fans started making comparisons to Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

But Tom and Damien are not newly dating hockey boyfriends with a complicated secret.

They have been together for about 15 years.

They are married.

And instead of escaping to a cabin, they bought an abandoned French château. 😂🏰

Meet Tom And Damien

The pair met in Montreal after being introduced at a dinner with mutual friends.

Tom has said Damien became his first boyfriend after he came out.

The relationship moved quickly.

Within roughly six months, they were living together.

Over the years, they built a life in Canada, eventually settling in Vancouver.

Tom also became part of the city’s inclusive hockey community through Cutting Edges, an LGBTQ+-friendly organization that gives queer players a place to enjoy the sport without having to leave part of themselves outside the rink.

That hockey connection, combined with the couple’s romantic photos, is what helped spark the recent Heated Rivalry comparisons online.

And honestly, we understand it.

Gay couple.

Hockey.

Canada.

Excellent cheekbones.

The algorithm was always going to have thoughts. 😂

But Then The Story Takes A Turn

The comparison is cute, but Tom and Damien’s real-life story becomes considerably more interesting once you leave the rink.

After years in Vancouver, the couple decided to make a dramatic change.

They moved to France.

And they bought a château.

Not a neat little renovated holiday home.

A genuine 19th-century château that had reportedly been empty for decades.

The property, now known as Château Poséidon, dates to the 1860s and needed serious restoration.

For Tom and Damien, that apparently sounded less like a warning and more like a project.

So they packed up their Canadian life and began restoring it together.

From Vancouver To Château Poséidon

The couple now documents much of the restoration online.

Room by room, they are bringing the enormous property back to life while also building a completely new chapter for themselves.

The long-term vision includes turning part of Château Poséidon into a place for weddings and other events.

Which feels particularly appropriate for two men whose own relationship has already survived 15 years, an international move and the apparently minor challenge of restoring an abandoned castle. 😂

The château project also gives their story a lovely sense of scale.

When Tom and Damien first met, Damien became Tom’s first boyfriend.

Fifteen years later, they are husbands rebuilding a piece of French history together.

That is quite a first relationship.

The Real-Life Shane And Ilya?

Not really.

And that is probably the point.

The online comparison works because the images are irresistible and the hockey connection gives Heated Rivalry fans something instantly recognizable.

But Tom and Damien have a life and identity of their own.

Their relationship did not begin as a secret rivalry between elite hockey players.

It began over dinner with friends.

It became a long-term partnership.

Then a marriage.

Then, somehow, a château.

So yes, feel free to enjoy the Shane-and-Ilya vibes.

But the real story is arguably better.

Fifteen years together, gay hockey, a move across the Atlantic and an abandoned French castle they are rebuilding side by side.

Forget the cabin.

These two have a castle. 🏰❤️

📷 @tom.garneau / @damien.verhaegen / @chateau.poseidon

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Jordan Firstman Goes From Gay Club Kid To Surprise Dad

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Jordan Firstman Goes From Gay Club Kid To Surprise Dad

Imagine living your fabulous gay New York party-promoter life and suddenly discovering you have a 10-year-old son.

That is the wonderfully chaotic premise behind Club Kid, the new A24 comedy from Jordan Firstman.

And judging by the newly released first trailer, surprise fatherhood is not going to turn this particular club kid into a suburban dad overnight.

Gay Nightlife Meets Dad Life

Firstman plays Peter, a hard-partying New York club promoter whose life revolves around nightlife, friends and the kind of decisions that probably make more sense at 3 a.m.

Then a 10-year-old boy named Lucas, played by Reggie Absolom, unexpectedly enters his life.

Lucas is the son Peter never knew he had.

Suddenly, a man who has built his life around queer nightlife has to figure out what being somebody’s father is supposed to look like.

The answer, at least initially, appears to involve bringing the kid directly into Peter’s existing world rather than immediately transforming Peter into somebody else.

That gives Club Kid a premise that is very funny on the surface.

But the trailer also suggests something considerably sweeter underneath all the chaos.

Peter already has a community around him.

Now that community may have to make room for a 10-year-old too.

Jordan Firstman Does Almost Everything

Firstman isn’t simply the star of Club Kid.

He also wrote and directed the movie, marking his feature directorial debut.

Firstman became widely known through his viral Instagram impressions before moving into increasingly prominent acting roles, including his memorable turn in the gay comedy Rotting in the Sun.

For Club Kid, however, he has assembled quite the supporting cast.

Diego Calva, Cara Delevingne, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Colleen Camp all appear alongside Firstman and Absolom.

Yes, Diego Calva is involved.

We felt that deserved its own paragraph. 👀

There’s Something Sweeter Underneath The Party

Club Kid premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in May, where its mix of outrageous comedy and unexpected tenderness earned strong early reviews.

That combination may be what makes the movie particularly interesting for queer audiences.

The setup could easily have become a simple fish-out-of-water comedy about an irresponsible gay party boy suddenly being forced to grow up.

But the more interesting possibility is that Peter doesn’t need to abandon his queer life in order to become a father.

Instead, fatherhood might expand his definition of family.

Queer people have spent generations creating families that don’t necessarily follow the conventional blueprint.

Friends become family.

Communities help raise and support one another.

And sometimes, apparently, a biological son unexpectedly walks straight into the middle of all of it.

From Club Kid To Dad?

The trailer doesn’t suggest Peter will become Father of the Year immediately.

Thank goodness, because that would be a much less entertaining movie. 😂

Instead, Club Kid appears interested in what happens when two completely different lives suddenly have to make room for each other.

Peter gets a son he never expected.

Lucas gets a father whose world looks nothing like the conventional family life he might have imagined.

And Peter’s fabulous queer circle may be getting its youngest new member yet.

Club Kid arrives in U.S. theaters November 6.

Gay nightlife, queer chosen family, unexpected fatherhood and Diego Calva?

Fine, A24.

You have our attention. 😂🌈❤️

📷 @a24 @jtfirstman

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He Came Out As Bi. Everyone Else Came Out With Opinions.

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He Came Out As Bi. Everyone Else Came Out With Opinions.

Apparently coming out as bisexual does not stop people wondering what your sexuality “really” is.

For comedian Maxx Eddy, it sometimes seems to encourage them.

“Being a bisexual man means everyone has a theory about your life, except you,” he writes in a new essay about coming out and discovering that the world still really likes people to pick a side (Queerty).

To some people, Maxx says, he is secretly gay.

To some LGBTQ+ men, he is basically straight.

And to a surprising number of people, being attracted to more than one gender apparently means he is destined to cheat on whoever he dates.

Coming out, he discovered, did not necessarily make his sexuality easier for other people to understand.

It simply gave them permission to tell him what they thought it meant.

Growing Up With Two Options

Maxx says that when he was younger, sexuality seemed to come with two rigid categories.

Gay men behaved one way.

Straight men behaved another.

Because he did not recognize himself in the gay stereotypes he had absorbed, he assumed he must be straight.

There were, admittedly, a few clues that things might be slightly more complicated.

One of them involved repeatedly Googling shirtless photos of Orlando Bloom.

Several times a week.

“Love your work, bud,” he jokes now. 😂

A religious upbringing added another layer of anxiety, and Maxx describes entering relationships with women while worrying that something about him would eventually give him away.

Coming Out Didn’t End The Questions

When Maxx eventually came out as bisexual, he expected some kind of clarity.

Instead, new assumptions appeared.

One former girlfriend initially accepted his sexuality but later became worried that he would cheat on her with a man.

For Maxx, that fear reflected one of the stereotypes bisexual people encounter repeatedly: the idea that attraction to more than one gender somehow makes monogamy impossible.

Then there is the assumption that bisexuality is merely a stop on the road to another identity.

A bisexual man dating a woman can be treated as practically straight.

The same man dating another man can suddenly be assumed to have finally admitted he was gay all along.

Neither leaves much room for the possibility that he meant exactly what he said when he called himself bisexual.

“You’re Just Going Through A Phase”

These days, Maxx seems considerably more comfortable letting other people be confused.

His comedy regularly explores bisexuality, masculinity and the expectations attached to both.

He is currently performing his debut one-man show Bi Meets World at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the official description rather wonderfully introduces him as a man who has spent his life trying to become an alpha male despite being “wimpy and bisexual.”

And when someone tells him they cannot understand how a person could genuinely be attracted to more than one gender?

Maxx now has an answer.

“It’s OK,” he tells them.

“You’re just going through a phase.”

Sometimes the best response to somebody questioning your sexuality is simply to question theirs right back. 😂

📷 @maxxeddy

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He Was Closeted. Then Teen Wolf Cast Him As Gay.

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He Was Closeted. Then Teen Wolf Cast Him As Gay.

Michael Johnston was 19 years old, newly arrived in Los Angeles and still struggling to understand his own sexuality.

Then one of his first major acting jobs asked him to play a gay teenager.

Johnston, now enjoying a new wave of attention thanks to the hit psychological thriller Obsession, has been looking back at what that moment actually felt like.

His answer is simple.

“Terrifying.”

Johnston grew up in North Carolina and says he was still in “complete and utter denial” about being gay when he landed the role of Corey Bryant on MTV’s Teen Wolf in 2015.

“I grew up in the South,” he recently told Cosmopolitan.

“So it was really scary.”

Playing A Gay Teen Before He Was Ready To Be Out

Corey entered Teen Wolf as a gay high-school student who later became romantically involved with Mason, played by Khylin Rhambo.

At the time, Johnston praised the series for treating queer relationships as naturally as straight ones.

But privately, the experience was considerably more complicated.

Johnston says he was still coming out to himself and to the people around him while filming the role.

That does not mean Teen Wolf forced him out.

Rather, playing Corey happened during a period when Johnston was already beginning to confront something he had spent years avoiding.

And doing that while portraying an openly gay teenager on a popular television series understandably came with pressure.

Then The Messages Started Arriving

What Johnston did not expect was how much Corey would mean to viewers.

He has said that over the years he received thousands of messages from queer fans who told him the character helped them feel better about themselves.

Some said seeing Corey helped them come out to their own parents.

For Johnston, that transformed the role from something frightening into something deeply meaningful.

He has said that he had no idea simply playing the character honestly could have that kind of impact.

Now, looking back, Johnston says he is proud of the part and proud of who he became.

Ten Years Later

Johnston is now 30 and starring as Bear in Obsession, Curry Barker’s supernatural psychological thriller about a young man whose wish to make his crush fall in love with him goes very, very wrong.

The film is not a queer story, and Bear is straight.

But Johnston himself is openly gay and has said he would like to play another queer role in the future — particularly one where sexuality is simply one meaningful part of a fully realized character.

That perspective feels especially interesting given where his career began.

At 19, playing a gay role frightened him.

Today, he is actively hoping for another one.

And Then There’s Troye Sivan 😂

Because no coming-of-age story is complete without one slightly ridiculous final chapter.

During a recent Cosmopolitan interview, Johnston was asked about the wildest direct message he had received since Obsession put him back in the spotlight.

His answer?

Troye Sivan.

Johnston said Troye replied “need” to an Instagram Story featuring his coffee.

That is all we know.

We are not turning one word and a caffeine beverage into a celebrity romance. 😂

But when Johnston was asked what he would say back, his answer was essentially an invitation to get coffee.

Which feels like a rather delightful place to leave things.

At 19, Michael Johnston was terrified to play gay because he was not yet comfortable being gay himself.

A decade later, he is openly discussing the experience, proud of the viewers Corey helped — and apparently available for coffee with Troye Sivan.

Life does occasionally write better arcs than television. ❤️

📷 @themichaeljohnston / @primevideo / @mtv

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