Daniel Diemer will play Ryan Price while Shaheen Jafargholi takes on Fabian Salah as the hockey romantic drama builds out its second-season ensemble ahead of a planned spring 2027 HBO Max premiere.
Heated Rivalry is adding two new characters to its second-season lineup, with Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi joining the cast as Ryan Price and Fabian Salah, respectively.
Diemer comes to the series after appearing in Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, while Jafargholi was part of HBO and Sky’s War. Their casting gives names to two more pieces of the expanding Season 2 ensemble and, more importantly, establishes who will bring Ryan and Fabian to screen.
For Diemer, the role follows credits that include the film The Half of It. Jafargholi has also appeared in Paramount+’s The Agency.
Series creator, writer and director Jacob Tierney and executive producer Brendan Brady described Ryan and Fabian as characters with distinctly different energies, pointing to their complexity as a key part of the casting process.
The pair also praised Diemer and Jafargholi for bringing confidence and emotional honesty to the roles, saying they were eager to see how both actors would make the characters their own.
Heated Rivalry Season 2 continues to widen its ensemble
Diemer and Jafargholi join a Season 2 cast that already includes Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Emily Hampshire, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor, Sabrina Jalees and Priyanka.
The growing cast offers another indication of how broad the show’s world will become in its next chapter, although no additional plot details for Ryan Price or Fabian Salah were disclosed in the casting announcement.
The production remains commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave, with participation from the Canada Media Fund. Tierney and Brady serve as executive producers alongside Jayme Alter Wilson.
Lori Fischburg and Liane Cunje are producers, while Rachel Reid, whose work provides the world on which the series is based, serves as consulting producer. Mike Goldbach is a co-writer on Season 2.
Spring 2027 return planned for HBO Max
The second season is expected to premiere on HBO Max in the United States in spring 2027.
Its HBO Max rollout is also set to include Australia and selected parts of Europe, excluding the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Turkey. The series is additionally slated for Latin America and several Asian markets, including the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
International distribution is handled by Sphere Abacus, a Bell Media company. The hockey romantic drama is currently available in more than 130 countries worldwide.
With the additions of Diemer and Jafargholi, attention now shifts from simply expanding the Season 2 cast to how Ryan Price and Fabian Salah will fit into the show’s wider character dynamics. For now, the casting announcement establishes the actors behind both roles while keeping the details of their stories under wraps.
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