The hot new TV show Heated Rivalry has been getting a lot of attention, but the show’s third episode which arrived on Friday took an unexpected turn.
The first two episodes dropped a week ago and their bold sex scenes got a lot of notice, and praise for not just fading to black. The show follows the relationship of two ice hockey stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov who keep their sexuality and romance secret for the sake of their careers.
While the first two episodes were titled Rookies and Olympians, and the titles for the rest of the episodes in the series were made public, the title of the third episode was kept under wraps, and even when it first appeared on HBO it was titled ‘Episode 3’.
We now know the episode is titled Hunter. It leaves the story of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov and instead introduces us to the story of another ice hokey player Shane Hunter and his romance with Smoothie store staffer Kip.
The characters are the protagonists in the first of the Game Changers series of novels by Rachel Reid which the series is based on. When TV producers decided to bring the story to the screen they opted to make Heated Rivalry the second book in the series the focus, but fans of the books will be overjoyed to discover the original story of Scott and Kip is also being included.
Unlike Shane and Ilya, who are both professional ice hockey players working in a sport that has not embraced diversity, Scott’s romance is with someone from outside his sporting world.
Canadian actor François Arnaud takes on the role of Scott Hunter. You might have previously seen him in The Borgias, Midnight Texas or Schitt’s Creek where he guest starred for one episode playing David’s ex-boyfriend Sebastian Reyne.
The actor came out as bisexual on Bisexual Visibility Day, sharing the news to his Instagram page where he revealed he was in a relationship with fellow actor Marc Bendavid.
The role of Kip, who catches Scott’s attention when he stops by the smoothie store he works at, is played by Robbie GK.
This is his first high profile role having previously appeared on Overcompensating, The Next Step and Utopia Falls.
Unlike the previous characters we’ve spent time with in the show his character Kip is out and proud, and interested in art more than sports. He finds happiness with Scott but struggles with having to keep the relationship as secret.
Previously he has been credited as Robbie Graham-Kuntz, but now he’s shortened his name to just GK.
