The dust has just settled on Heated Rivalry after the finale episode last week, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve likely been left with a bunch of questions… and an unquenchable thirst.
In between off-screen drama involving fellow HBO shows, confirmation of a second season, and rumours of its fanfic origins, Heated Rivalry has been living rent-free in everyone’s heads. But one question still lingers: is it actually based on a true story?
As a refresher: Heated Rivalry is a horny rom-com directed by Jacob Tierney which chronicles the budding romance between rival hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).
The show, which is based on Rachel Reid‘s Game Changers book series, premiered in November and quickly became a runaway hit with its classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, steamy sex scenes and… a little bit of hockey for extra measure.
So if you’ve watched the finale and are now wondering if all of it is the real deal (we can dream!), look no further. Here’s what we know about whether Heated Rivalry is based on a true story.
Heated Rivalry is based on real-life sporting rivalries
Reid has addressed the inspiration behind her books on her website, revealing that the sporting dynamic between Shane and Ilya is based on the real-life rivalry between hockey players Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
But before you get your hockey pucks in a twist, Reid was inspired only by the intense competition between those two hockey stars, with the romance aspect of Heated Rivalry being complete fiction.
“I never directly base my characters on any real people,” Reid wrote on her website. “One of my inspirations for Heated Rivalry was, obviously, the extremely entertaining rivalry between Crosby and Ovechkin.”
If you’re not aware, Crosby and Ovechkin spent the early aughties engaged in an infamous rivalry as star players for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, respectively.
Their sporting feud was egged on by both fans and the media circus that surrounded them, and made each of their games must-watch TV, all of which we see throughout Heated Rivalry’s six-episode run.
Shane and Ilya are inspired by real-life sporting archetypes
As for just how much the characters were inspired by Crosby and Ovechkin, Reid said the real-life sporting players informed how she conceived of Shane and Ilya.
For Reid, Ovechkin was one of multiple “flashy European [hockey] players” who inspired Ilya’s more boisterous personality, while Crosby was the “more stoic, good boy captain [and] role modely type” who played into Shane’s characterisation.
While Ovechkin and Crosby were the most potent inspirations for these archetypes, Reid credited fellow hockey stars like Jaromír Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk with the creation of Heated Rivalry’s Ilya, and Wayne Gretzky and Paul Kariya with Shane’s characterisation.
So, while Shane and Ilya may have been dreamt up by Reid in a basis of sporting feuds and archetypes in the real world, the romance that ensues between them in the series is pure fantasy. “My characters are original, and I work hard on creating them,” Reid wrote.
“I was also inspired by other sports rivalries, by other fictional stories, and by my love of the enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance tropes,” she added.
Still, some actual athletes, like Aussie basketballer Isaac Humphries, said Heated Rivalry‘s locker room scenes are uncannily accurate. So make of that what you will.
So what’s with the Marvel fanfic rumours?
While Shane and Ilya are loosely inspired by the real world, one of Heated Rivalry’s other couples — Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G. K.) — were mixed up in a fanfic involving Marvel’s Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.
That’s right, way back before Reid was able to publish Game Changers in print, she shared the story on Archive of Our Own.
Since Reid (incorrectly) thought all stories on the platform were supposed to be fanfic, she altered the romance story between Scott and Kip to reimagine them as Steve and Bucky, a move which she says she regrets.
“I desperately wish I’d never posted that fan fiction,” Reid told Salon. “I know it’s still circulating, and it’s bad. It’s so embarrassing. I hate thinking of people reading it because I just rammed a bunch of extra Marvel characters into the story for no reason.”
So there you have it, ya horndogs, Heated Rivalry is inspired *partly* by real life people and events, and even less *partly* by Marvel.
If you’re extra studious, you can now go back and watch the real games between Crosby and Ovechkin. That is, if you were ever even watching Heated Rivalry for the sport (you weren’t).
Lead images: HBO
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