What’s Next for Connor Storrie After ‘Heated Rivalry’?
Connor Storrie stepped out of a Culver City restaurant and onto the HBO Max charts in under a year, and the industry is already sketching the next chapter. The 26-year-old Texan’s turn as Russian captain Ilya Rozanov in the queer hockey romance Heated Rivalry turned a modest Canadian series into a global streaming hit, landed him CAA representation, and earned an Emmy nomination for his SNL hosting gig. What happens next is the question every casting director is asking.
Season two commitments
Storrie and co-star Hudson Williams are locked for three seasons under the original deal. Season two begins filming this summer in Toronto and adapts the more serious second novel in Rachel Reid’s series, shifting the tone from playful rivals to the pressures of a possible public relationship.
Producers are expanding the supporting cast while keeping the modest budget that made the first season’s chemistry feel intimate rather than glossy. Storrie has joked that the Russian accent now feels easier than his native Texas drawl, so language prep is no longer a hurdle.
The later air date in spring 2027 gives the actor room to slot in outside projects without conflicting with the show’s long-term calendar.
Agency momentum
CAA’s packaging team moved quickly once early screenings lit up internal Slack channels. The agency is positioning Storrie for both leading-man and character-actor lanes, a rare split for someone whose face became a meme overnight.
Insiders say the first offer sheet arrived the week after his SNL episode, and negotiations for an A24 ensemble comedy were already underway before the episode aired.
That dual positioning matters because it keeps the door open for smaller prestige indies while the larger studio offers test his box-office pull.
Directing ambitions
Storrie finished shooting his micro-budget feature Transaction Planet on an iPhone just before Christmas and is already cutting a rough assembly between fittings for season two costumes.
The absurdist sci-fi story about an alien spirit in a human body channels John Waters and Sean Baker influences, a far cry from the NHL arenas of his day job.
He has said he plans to keep directing on the side so that the sudden fame does not trap him inside the same character type for the next decade.
Film slate takes shape
Storrie is circling Halina Reijn’s A24 project Please and in final negotiations for Craig Zobel’s thriller Turpentine opposite Melissa McCarthy.
Both roles sit outside the romantic lane, letting him test dramatic range before the next hockey season script lands.
His agents are also shopping a contained indie drama in which he would play a washed-up gymnast, a nod to the body-control work he did before the series.
Television diversification
A three-episode guest arc on Criminal Minds: Evolution is in early talks and would mark his first network crime procedural.
The appearance is designed as a palate cleanser for viewers who only know him from romance edits, while still keeping his shooting window flexible around Toronto calls.
Producers like the idea of casting a heartthrob against type as a chilling unsub, a marketing hook already baked into the pitch.
Comedy credibility
His Emmy-nominated SNL turn proved he could hold a monologue without the hockey pads, and Mumford & Sons booked the after-party at the Chateau on the strength of that single sketch.
That late-night cred matters for the A24 comedy Peaked, where he would play opposite Laura Dern and Molly Gordon in a story about a fading boy-band reunion tour.
Studio notes praise his ability to flip from earnest to deadpan in the same scene, a skill the hockey series rarely showcased.
Fan economy pressure
BookTok edits of the first season have racked up hundreds of millions of views, and Storrie’s team is monitoring how the louder corners of fandom react to any non-romance casting.
Early test screenings for season two already include focus groups that skew younger and more online, a shift from the older broadcast demo HBO Max originally targeted.
Balancing those expectations while expanding his résumé is the quiet calculation behind every new offer.
Personal brand evolution
Storrie still lives in the same Silver Lake duplex he rented while waiting tables, a detail he drops in interviews to keep the waiter-to-star narrative alive without turning it into shtick.
He has started posting behind-the-scenes clips from Transaction Planet on his own TikTok rather than through a publicist, a small move that signals control over his off-screen image.
That authenticity plays well with the same viewers who made the series a sleeper hit, and it gives him leverage when negotiating final cut on future indies.
Long-term positioning
The three-season contract buys time, but the real window for diversification is the eighteen months between season two’s shoot and its premiere.
Storrie’s representatives are treating that gap like an accelerated actor’s workshop, stacking one drama, one comedy, and one villain role before the next round of Emmy voting begins.
If the gamble works, the name attached to Ilya Rozanov will no longer be the only thing casting directors remember.
Staying power
Connor Storrie’s next moves will be measured less by volume than by range, and the next eighteen months offer the clearest test yet. The roles lined up so far suggest a deliberate spread across tones and budgets, anchored by a long-running series that keeps his face in the algorithm. Whether the audience follows him outside the rink depends on how convincingly he plays everything else.
