Hi and welcome to K Let's Talk, the podcast where we breakdown
storytelling across books, television and film with a
special love for book to screen adaptations.
Here we talk about craft, character arcs, structure,
dialogue, visual language, and the creative choices that shape
how a story lands. If you like thoughtful,
conversational, deep dives into the stories you can't stop
thinking about, you're in the right place.
Let's talk. Hello everyone and welcome back
to the podcast. I am so excited for this week's
episode because it is all about season 2 of Heated rivalry
answering some questions that were submitted to me over on
Instagram and TikTok and Threads.
And there were so many great questions that I really think
that my discussion around season 2 is going to be broken up into
multiple episodes. So thank you to everyone who
submitted a question. I was talked to how many I
received and all of them were so insightful and interesting and I
really can't wait to dive into each and every one of them and
discuss the production and my anticipation levels and
predictions and hopes, wants, wishes for season 2 of this
series and how I think it might be adapted from book to screen.
So in this particular episode of the Q and AI wanted to primarily
highlight questions surrounding Season 2's structure and overall
adaptation format. Because there's a lot of big
picture planning that's going into season 2 that Jacob Tierney
and his Co writer are going to have to think about and execute.
And a lot of fans, myself included, are very excited and
curious about what that might look like given The Long Game is
such a different book to Heated Rivalry.
It is taking place to three years after the end of Heated
Rivalry. What is that going to look like?
How is Jacob going to handle the pacing of that?
All of those questions fall under this bucket.
And so I wanted to make this particular episode of podcast
centered around that topic in particular.
So one of the more frequently asked questions I received was
how do I think The Long Game is going to be spaced in Season 2
and do I think it will be cut into two parts?
Now to preface this, a lot of this conversation comes around
an interview that Jacob Tierney had given where he stated that
he does not want the show to be a crazy number of episodes.
He thinks that 10 is too many. He said he doesn't need 10 to
tell this story, but he's never downright stated that it will
only be 6 either, and that's in his interview with the LA Times.
He just wants to keep the story as tight as possible.
So that may mean we get 6 episodes again.
It may also mean we get 7 or 8. I just don't think he wants to
do 10. And I don't think anyone will
know until the season is about to air because Jacob is still
writing it right now, so even they don't know how many
episodes he's going to need yet. That said, when thinking about
the first season of Heated Rivalry, I think episodes three
and five are both very solid examples of the fact that Jacob
can fit a lot into an hour of TV and do it extremely well.
The difference here is that in Heated Rivalry, the book and
also in episode 3 of the series, we're covering a lot of time
very quickly and The Long Game is covering less overall time.
That has more moments featured within that time period.
And those moments are also longer, meaning we breathe
within those scenes and story beats for a lot longer than he
did. Rivalry does, and that's going
to be the key difference between Season 1 and Season 2.
So to answer the question about whether or not I think it will
be cut into two parts, knowing Jacob as we do and how he wants
to be efficient and succinct with his storytelling, no, I do
not think they're going to cut the long game split down the
middle into two parts. But what I do think we also need
to consider is the fact that the epilogue of Heated Rivalry was
not covered in Season 1. So there is theoretically the
chance that there will be overlap from Book 1 into Book 2
and Season 1 into Season 2. And so the epilogue of Heated
Rivalry takes place in November of 2018 and the same month the
My Dinner With Hayden scene happens.
And that is not included in either book.
But Jacob owns all of the IP, so I think he could take that
writing and turn it into something we see on screen.
I do think we will include that in the show before we jump
because the long game doesn't start until July of 2020, so
there is likely going to be a jump in there between those key
moments in their lives. And unless Jacob fills it some
plot, which I think we may get, there's too much of the long
game to cover as is. So I don't think he's going to
waste time on anything that doesn't move the story of Shane
and Ilya forward. So no, I don't think it will
need to be split truly in half, so to speak.
And I say that because I know we're going to be getting the
trophy room scene, and that takes place towards the end of
the story in March of 2021. And if we cut after trophy room,
we'd basically be at the finish line of the story itself,
because the book ends in June of 2021 and the epilogue is in
October of 2021. So at that point, I think Jacob
would include all of it. I do think there may be some
similar writing as to season 1 where we get some of the story
pushing into season 3 O. It might not be a true half, but
if season 3 is the last season of the show, I think everyone
involved would want it to be as reflective of the last book that
currently is being written by Rachel Reed so that if the show
is complete, it's completed alongside the book and the three
book series covering Shane and Ilya.
Another question I received was do I think Jacob plans to adapt
books 3 through 5 and how would they fit into the already tight
6 episodes projected for season 2?
Do I think he plans to address them?
And I think everyone has probably seen by now there are
rumors of casting Flyers going out about all of the characters
from Books 3 through 5 and needing to cast those
characters. So I do think we will see them
all in some capacity. We've already had Ryan Price
named and mentioned in Season 1, so I'm excited to see who they
cast for that. And I'm looking forward to being
introduced to some new actors in Season 2 because there's a very
big emphasis from the entire production on hiring new
Canadian talent and making sure that they are looking there
first. Not only because they need to to
get funding for their project, but I also think it's a really
wise approach given how both Hudson and Connor were relative
unknowns before this project. And now you can see how the
visibility they've garnered from being on heated rivalry and the
success of the show has really put the series on the map, but
also established careers for them.
And I think that everyone working on this production would
agree that that's a really wonderful byproduct of working
on a show this way and putting so much love and attention into
it is that the people who are now going to be tied to it are
going to have eyeballs on them. And that's a difference between
these newly cast actors versus Hudson and Connor, who went into
this not thinking anything of it.
It might be seen in Canada, it might do well in Canada.
And then they were thrust into this global response.
And so these new actors being cast now, no going into the
project that they will have a global response to their roles.
So that's something I think about in the background quite
often is how different the approach is going to be for
these newly cast actors. And hopefully they will have the
same level of interest that a lot of people have in Hudson and
Connor's previous work, and new projects will be presented to
them because of their work on this show.
I think that's one of the beautiful things about an
ensemble, is that so many nice things can come out of their
work together. And I also think that both
Hudson and Connor are going to be really great influences on
these new actors, given that they've been grown to the wolves
of the industry in the way that they have and can and and can
bring in these new actors and show them the ropes.
And they understand better than anyone what it's like to be
joining this particular ensemble.
So that's all fun to think about in the background as we await
the casting announcements for Season 2.
Tough Guy and Common Goal both happen within that gap between
Heated Rivalry and the Long Game.
Tough Guy takes place between October of 2018 to January of
2019, and the epilogue of that book is July of 2019.
Common Goal is November of 2019 to April of 2020, and the
epilogue is July of 2020. So Role Model is all contained
within the same timeline as The Long Game.
That's where that book differs. So Troy's story is all contained
within the long game and it will run parallel to Shane and Ilya's
story. And Troy's book starts in
November of 2020 and ends in February of 2021.
So that book is the one that I believe is going to be treated
differently and used differently within Season 2.
So that's all important to keep in mind when thinking about how
the story is going to be laid out.
Common goal and tough guy, The events of those stories take
place before the Long game even begins, so to include them in
Season 2 would mean we'd have to have scenes dedicated to those
two years between heated rivalry in the long game.
When you add role model and tough guy into the equation,
given that we've already had Ryan Price named in Season 1 and
we know that Role model and Troy and Harris's story is the one
that Jacob has said himself he's most excited to see on screen,
you have to basically consider 2 avenues that the show can take.
The first would be including another stand alone like we got
in season 1, which would be focused on Troy and Harris.
And the way they successfully did this in season 1 is by
having the Scott and Kipp story contained within its own
episode. But that episode was used to
catch the reader up on Scott and Kipp's whole relationship.
And that relationship timeline was altered for the show because
in the book they meet in January of 2017 and Scott wins the
Stanley Cup in spring of 2017. But the show has the meet before
the Olympics in November of 2013.
In the Olympics are in 2014 and the kiss is still in 2017, so
it's been stretched and rearranged for the show.
I've seen previously that Jacob has said that that was a
continuity error that they realized too late in the game
and couldn't fix. But that stuff happens when
writing a project like this, and it's something to think about
when they're figuring out the logistics and how to make these
characters fit into Season 2. Their standalone episode for
Scott and kept covered January 2017 back to the 2014 Olympics
basically. So that's another huge expanse
of time to cover a whole relationship dynamic within.
For Ryan and Troy and Wyatt, their involvement is twofold
because not only do they interact with Shane and Ilya in
their books, but they themselves were all teammates before the
long game when they played together in Toronto.
And that season where they all played together takes place in
that liminal space between heated rivalry and the long
game. And what's important within that
storyline is Troy is not kind to Ryan.
And I think that's important to see or know and understand in
order to better understand Troy's character and where his
character is at by the time he joins Ottawa, because Troy is in
a really tough place when he arrives there.
The show could address that with a simple line of dialogue, but
it could also address that in a standalone episode where we see
Troy on Toronto before we meet him in Ottawa.
And so the Troy standalone episode could cover Ryan, it
could cover Wyatt, it could cover his own story in that in
between timeline when they're all on the team in Toronto,
which I think I would prefer because that would mean we would
meet Dallas Kent on screen. And he is villain in the book.
And I really want Jacob to flesh him out further because he's
often spoken about and referenced, but we don't get a
lot of screen time with him and he doesn't interact with Shane
or Ilya that often. And heated rivalry is the story
of Shane and Ilya. So if we're going to get Dallas
Kent, it's going to be in a handful of scenes during the All
Star weekend or in a game maybe where we're in following Ilya's
character and he's playing against Dallas.
But other than that, we're not going to be around Dallas
because Shane and Ilya are not around Dallas, but Troy is.
So if Troy gets his own standalone episode and it covers
his time on the team with Dallas and Ryan and Wyatt, then we get
way more insight into his character.
A lot of conversations with Dallas happen off page and so I
also think Jacob has the very unique opportunity to have a lot
of these conversations take place on screen if he wants them
to. And to me, it would more likely
be shot as a beep plot, which would also be a different
approach to the series for season 2.
The success of Heated Rivalry Season 1 is because we are
completely immersed in Shane and Ilya in the episodes covering
them, which is episodes 1245 and 6.
They're in every scene. We are with them in every scene.
If we're not with one, we're with the other.
We don't follow another character around unless they're
interacting with Shane or Ilya or the two of them together.
And so if they were to then break off and have scenes where
we're following Troy within the episode, that's when we start
getting the plots. And I don't think that's the
show that Jacob Tierney wants to shoot.
So anything about these side characters then sort of have to
be contained to the one standalone episode following
Troy or referred back to and not shown on screen.
Hopefully that makes sense to everybody.
I know there's a lot of timelines going on in these
books. It's hard to keep track of them
all. But largely it's important to
know that Troy and Harris meet in November of 2020 when Troy
joins the Centaurs and their book is largely self-contained.
It ends in February of 2021. We see them pop up in the Long
Game as far as March of 2021, but there is overlap with Tough
Guy. So again, Troy's standalone
episode could really span a good amount of time, similar to how
Scott and Kipp's episode did, and include far more of the
scenes that take place in Tough Guy, which is 2018 to 2019 when
he's on Toronto with Ryan Price, and extend all the way up until
when he meets Harris. And then I think for most of
their story, because it does directly overlap with Shane and
Ilya's, we're going to just have them featured in the background
of Shane and Ilya's storyline. It's going to have to be woven
back into their relationship and how it affects Ilya in
particular in the long game because this show is about Shane
and Ilya. So anytime we get any of these
side characters on screen, it has to be in service of that now
because again, this is a book to screen adaptation.
I've been asked many times what do I think will get cut or
condensed from the book or books?
And I think most of that will be things and moments that happen
off the page with other characters because the show puts
Shane and Ilya at the center and there are very few scenes where
it's just them with another character.
Most of the scenes are the two of them interacting.
And I think that is why Season 1 was so successful, like I said,
because we were so immersed in their relationship.
And if they move away from that, it will feel different and it
will lose that longing and yearning that we loved about
Season 1. Transversely, Jacob might lean
into having them interact with more people and spending more
time interacting with other people because he is excited to
cover how Shane and Ilya are now in a adult relationship and have
to figure out what that looks like behind closed doors in
private and then forward facing in public.
And we are going to see that primarily through the vehicle of
Hayden and his character because he is one of the few people at
the beginning and majority of the book who knows about Shane
and Ilya besides Shane's parents.
And so that's going to be the really interesting juxtaposition
we get where Shane and Ilya have to figure out, OK, when we're
around people who don't know about us, how are we behaving?
When we're around people who do know about us, how are we
behaving? And one of the best examples of
that is the double date that he and Ilya go on with Ryan and his
boyfriend Fabian, who we then later get a club episode when
Fabian has a concert and they attend that.
That's going to be a really important story of Beat early on
in the show to establish that dynamic that Jacob speaks of in
some of his interviews lately where they have to figure out
what are they behaving like in public?
What are they behaving like around peers and people within
their community who know about them?
What does that feel like to them?
It's going to be awkward at 1st, and it is in the book as well.
So with that in mind, I do think we will get Ryan and definitely
we'll get Troy. I don't know how much of Eric
we're going to get, I think. We won't get a ton of it though.
It will be used when necessary, but not more than needed to move
the plot along. So I think there will likely be
a lot of Shane and Ilya discussing things that have
happened rather than us watching them happen on screen.
And that will be important to keep the plot moving forward
quickly and efficiently if Jacob plans to cover the entirety of
this book within 6 episodes. 2nd to that, I think much of Ilyas
conversations with his therapist will be condensed or written so
that multiple beats can be shown in one of his meetings with her.
So he goes to see her multiple times.
He's there for hours long sessions.
We can't get too many long scenes covering their
conversations. One or two longer ones that
cover his emotional arc will likely be used because it's more
effective than multiple shorter ones.
But knowing Jacob and how he wants to cover the arc of this
character in Alia, so true to the book, that might not be the
case. He might include multiple short
ones that really kind of give us a sucker punch of information
because like I said in the book, he has so many important
conversations with Alina, but a lot of them happen off screen
and then we're in Ilya's head recounting what they talked
about. So the show has to find a way to
convey those conversations very quickly and efficiently.
They're all going to be in Russia, and that's a lot of
Russian dialogue for Connor story.
So how are they going to space that out?
Because this is a very important detail, which is that Galena
being the only other person he can converse with in Russian,
because that Lana is no longer nearby, he isn't talking to her.
That's a huge deal to him. And he can really open his heart
and pour his heart out to her because he's speaking in his
native language and his his words flow out of him
differently when he is speaking in Russian versus in English.
And a lot of the conversations have to do with his family and
his mother and his father. And Jacob already so beautifully
wrote the Russian monologue scene in Season 1.
So I'm really excited to see how he chooses to cover these scenes
between Ilya and Elena in Season 2, because they are really,
really important to the storyline and Ilya's emotional
part. I do think there will be a few
hookup scenes that they will skip, mainly for timing, or at
least they'll cut to black and then time jump, which they
started to do in episodes 456 of the series.
And there's one instance of that that I can think of off the top
of my head, which is when Ilya stays in Montreal for the first
time and doesn't go back on the team plane.
But this isn't new. They've already established that
they can fade to black now because Shane and Ilya's
relationship, at least from being a viewer, is hidden from
us in some respects. There are moments that are meant
to be private between them that we're not Privy to, and that
slow change in filming style over the course of season 1 is a
smart way for them to maintain that in season 2 in order to
emphasize certain sex scenes more than others and give them
longer screen time. And then imply the emotional and
physical connection between Shane and Ilia without them
having to draw it out longer than need be.
Because a lot of the long game is going to be about the inner
worlds of Shane and Ilia, their communication not being good.
And yes, they communicate with sex, but the whole point of the
long game is them learning how to communicate differently.
They have stated already that there are a few key sex scenes
that I think we will get in their entirety, but I think
others will be skipped over but implied that they take place.
I also think they will condense a lot of the hockey.
So the Centaur's winning streak, the All Star competition meaning
the hockey part of it I think we'll get less of and they'll
put more emphasis on the moment between Shane and Ilya in the
hotel room afterwards. The playoff series, I think most
of that is going to be for timing, of course, but also for
the sake of shooting the hockey. I think that you'll probably
skip the dinner portion when Ilya gets the dog and then
simply have Anya appear just because, again, that doesn't
necessarily move the plot forward with him and Shane, but
the dog being a part of their relationship dynamic does.
So we don't need to see, you know, 5-6 minute long scene of
him going to Harris's family farm and all that.
We might, but I don't think we need to.
We just need to know he gets the dog.
So that's kind of another example of where a lot of that
can happen off screen and be implied and give callbacks to
these books through dialogue without them having to be
spelled out so clearly on screen.
For us in particular, if we are to get a standalone episode for
Troy and Harris, I again think it's going to be beneficial to
use that standalone to provide more back story on Troy before
he arrives in Ottawa, how he treated Ryan.
Because his arc as a character would feel more deserved if we
saw what he was like before. And it would also be a catalyst
for us as viewers to see Dallas Kent on screen interacting with
people on screen. Because it folds in nicely with
the commissioner and the way the league has been navigating Scott
Hunter and how the league is going to continue navigating
things with Shane and with Ilya and with Troy in the long game.
And so again, using Troy's standalone to give that back
story and build up that side of the story and show what the
league is like and the ugly side of it and give more of a real
characterization to the villain, so to speak, in Dallas Kent and
make him a real person rather than this off screen villain, I
think that's going to be really important for the rest of it.
I think the angle is primarily going to be used as story beats
that support Shane and Ilya's story.
So Troy coming out to Ilya and Ilya telling Troy that he is
bisexual, that's really important.
We're going to get that from Ilya's point of view.
Then the Pride night after Troy comes out to his team, that's
another important moment will be in Ilya's point of view,
probably in the locker room listening to that happen.
You don't think they're going to put that in the self-contained
episode covering Troy and Harris?
I think Ryan and Fabian are part of Shane and Ilya's story
through their dinner and the concert I spoke of.
Those things can easily be woven into Shane and Ilya's story and
they don't need to be part of a standalone.
They can just include dialogue during the dinner, which happens
in the long game of how Fabian and Ryan met, how long they've
been together. There's a lot of context that
can be gained from those conversations without us having
to see it playing out in their own separate timeline.
I think much of the success of the show is that it is a dual
protagonist show, meaning that every scene of the show with the
exception of episode 3 features Ilya or Shane or the two of them
together, and all of the other characters are introduced and
featured only when they're interacting with those
protagonists. There are no scenes with any
side characters which do not include Shane or Ilya because it
is not their story. And so I got a question saying I
trust Jacob, but I worry season 2 won't live up to the high
expectations. What would need to happen to
avoid a disappointing season 2? And I think the fear a lot of
people have is that in introducing so many new
characters from the other books in the series, which would
include tough guy, common goal, and role model, that would mean
that they all need to be explained and get screen time.
That cuts into the story of Shane and Ilya.
And while I agree that their stories are important for Shane
and Ilya, particularly Troy and Harris's, I don't think they
need to be fully fleshed out and explained in great detail like
Scott and Kip were in episode 3 of Rivalry.
Especially for a character like Eric who interacts with Ilia
primarily. And during the long game, those
interactions are contained to inside the Kingfisher bar.
So I think if we see Eric, that is what we will get.
And perhaps the dialogue implies part of his story arc like we
see him with Kyle. But I don't think we're going to
have a lot of time dedicated to Eric in particular.
They might have Ilya and Troy in New York at the bar meeting with
all those guys, and that's the same night that Troy comes out
to Ilya. So I do think we'll get that.
And that might be the one time we really get a glimpse at Eric
and Kyle and maybe Scott Hunter again and have those scenes
pulled right out of the Long Game.
The only story of those three that differs is the Troy and
Harris story because their entire book takes place within
the same timeline as the Long Game and not before.
So we do not need them to have a whole spin off episode to convey
what's happening between them. So long as we have Ilya present
for all of the moments he's present for in the Long Game,
and they're folded into what we see of him, then we're going to
see the greater story of Harris and Troy play out on screen
because Ilia is actually a very pivotal part in getting them
together. So again, Troy and Harris don't
need to have that standalone episode to cover what happens
between them in the long game. If anything, I think the
standalone would be to cover what happens with Troy before he
gets to Ottawa. To me, that serves a far better
narrative purpose and aids the bigger overarching storyline,
and I think that's a key difference between how they
handled Scott and Kipp versus how they're going to have to
handle Troy and Harris. Rather than covering them in a
stand alone where most of the interactions are between the two
of them without Ilya, it would be more entertaining to only
include that storyline of them falling in love in scenes with
Ilya, if that makes sense. Because the success of the show
is in maintaining that closeness with our main characters.
Jacob has stated numerous times that this show is heated
rivalry. The story is Shane and Ilya's
story and that is what the show will be about.
And for everyone's fear or anticipation, I think we can
expect less of the side characters than people are
worried about. In my opinion.
I think a handful of scenes for Ryan, maybe one with Eric, the
most is going to be with Troy and Harris.
But likely it's going to be the same amount of screen time that
Scott Hunter had in Season 1. Because this season is about
Shane and Ilya's relationship, their communication.
And if the scenes with the other characters do not aid in
conveying that story or those issues, then they're not going
to get featured because they don't have enough time.
And everything in the show is going to have to be tightened up
in order to push that story forward in the most effective
and efficient way. Another question I got
surrounding that is, can the lightning in a bottle
combination of the storytelling and the music and the acting
choices be replicated given the new global attention that the
series has received? And I think ultimately that's
hard to truly conceptualize because everyone goes into
watching media so differently. They come in with different
expectations that they've built up in their heads.
They've built versions of the story in their heads.
They've now also seen Shane and Ilya on their screens and can
form educated guesses on what Season 2 will be.
And so if that expectation is very high or simply different
from what Jacob turns out, then naturally people are going to be
disappointed. But Jacob and the crew have said
that they're approaching the season the exact same way that
they did Season 1, even though ultimately it's a very different
story. We don't have the same yearning
as Season 1 because they're dating in Season 2.
We get a different kind of yearning.
We have more of the miscommunication, but a
different kind of miscommunication.
We have mixed signals and messages and misalignments.
We have more frustration. The subject matter is different,
they're older. The story is also less jumpy and
far more self-contained. And so for all those reasons,
the writing will be inherently different and the pacing will be
different for season 2 than it was in season 1.
These two men are not the same men that we left at the cottage.
And that will probably make some viewers frustrated because it's
going to feel different because everyone has also now been
introduced to the actors who play Shane and Ilya outside of
those roles, and we've seen them interact with one another
outside of the show. And so that also influences the
reception because before we knew them, we could only see Shane
and Ilya on screen. But now people who have studied
either act or beyond their work in this particular show can
watch their performances and potentially spot moments where
they slip through their character somehow.
And sometimes that takes people out of the performance.
But to me, they're both so different from the characters
that I don't have that fear. It's just something I anticipate
will add to the discourse once Season 2 has aired.
As far as the lighting or the set design, I think visually it
will feel very similar because we will use the same crew, the
same cameras. The lighting will be used in
similar ways if I had to guess, especially because the darker
colors can be used to convey them hiding and ileus depression
and their relationship fractures.
That can all be conveyed using the lighting in the similar way
that they did with the 1st 2 episodes of season 1 and those
darker colors being used to convey those feelings.
I also expect that it will be a similar approach to how they
shoot the hockey unless they decide to fill them film those
scenes closer to how we shot. Saw them shot in the All Star
game during episode 5, which is the way I liked best.
Personally. I think that the flow state that
they were able to capture with the way that that whole All Star
Game interaction was shot, especially when we can see Shane
and Ilya passing the puck to one another and skating.
That to me was the best shots of the hockey and I hope that they
lean into that more because I thought it was really beautiful.
As for the music, it's another character and Jacob has great
taste. So I expect more of the same.
I expect more Canadian artists, maybe some smaller artists, less
mainstream music. All of the music is going to be
music that aids in the storytelling.
So I expect some sad music as well.
I expect some romantic music mixed in there.
I hope we get some Russian music.
I think that would be an interesting thing for them to
include again. We got a few orchestral songs in
Season 1. I think they'll use that again.
I also expect the score to be the same composer Peter Peter
and that greatly aids in the storytelling, especially where
we have such an emotional arc because of Ilya's depression and
Shane's heroes arc that Rachel has mentioned too.
I think we will also get an expanded upon version of the
theme song that he created for them which is the 2 souls one
soul. I think they'll expand upon that
further in season 2 which I am looking forward to.
I think we get the same sound mixing and the use of sensitive
mics that I loved so much from season 1 because that all really
captures the really raw audio of characters in their more
intimate moments and also emphasizes the quiet moments and
makes everything feel more grounded.
One thing I noticed a lot in Season 1 was that because
they're in hotels a lot, you can hear cars and city life outside
the hotel rooms in the background, especially in
episodes 1 and 2. We also get that when they are
in the hotel in Tampa during Episode 5 or moments when either
of them are outside talking the phone.
So I expect that to be used a lot as well in Season 2,
especially since they're going to be apart from one another
when they're traveling on the road and they're catching up
with each other over FaceTime or over the phone.
I think we're going to get a lot of that creative audio used in
in Season 2 as well. As for the casting, like I said,
I think we're going to get a lot of unknown actors, Canadian
talent, get to have that same experience of watching people no
one knows yet become household names.
And that was a big part of the success of Season 1, is that no
one went into it knowing who Hudson and Connor were, and it
made their appearances on screen all the more interesting and
exciting. So on the whole, much of the
production side will be approached the same way.
We do have a secondary writer for the scripts, so the writing
may change because of that. We do have a very different type
of story being told in Season 2, and that will be tangible.
You'll feel that. But in terms of visuals, the
attention to detail, the production value, the color
grading, the sound mixing, the score, the soundtrack, I expect
that to all be top tier once again for Season 2.
That being said, I don't know how long Jacob prepped for
Season 1 before they actually started filming.
The turn around time between season 1 and season 2 is quite
quick. But what I will say is that they
knew they had a greenlit season 2 prior to season 1 airing.
And so my hope is that a lot of these decisions about how he
wanted to lay out this second season were all considered
months and months and months ago, and all of the groundwork
was already delayed earlier than we, the public, were informed of
a Season 2 being greenlit. I think that is important when
it comes to scouting locations. And that's even going to be
approached differently for Season 2, given that they have
such a huge fan base now that's going to try and find those
scouting locations and potentially crash the set.
So a lot of the prep that they may have already done might have
to get tweaked a little bit to accommodate the fact that the
fan base has grown so large. But again, they have a very well
run machine in this production. We saw that on screen they were
editing the show as it was coming out back in November and
December and the quality was not lessened by that fact.
So I have full confidence that Season 2 is going to have all of
the same magic. That formula was very clearly
successful for them. Why would they tamper with it?
If anything, I think that the lightning in a bottle is going
to be different this time around because everybody's already met
Shane and Ilya. We're not meeting them for the
first time. Hopefully we get that same
lightning in a bottle feeling with some of these new actors
that are playing the new characters that we're going to
show up in Season 2. But I also am not worried about
the performances that Hudson or Connor are going to turn out
because they know these characters really, really well.
And they both have said that they loved the second book and
that they're excited to dive into a lot of the material.
And that enthusiasm is inevitably going to show up in
their performances. So I I'm not worried.
I'm not worried about Season 2. I'm going to enjoy it.
And if you liked the book, you always will have the book, then
the show can be its own thing. And I think that that's one of
the big reasons why I love book Discreet Adaptations is I, I get
2 stories that I love out of the two mediums.
And that's important to keep in mind.
So I'm going to end this portion of the season 2 Q&A here.
I've done a lot of yapping. Hopefully you guys feel the same
way about some of what I've touched upon in this Q&A and I'm
going to make another one to answer some other questions that
I got from people. I have a lot of thoughts on the
episode predictions and the pacing of the episodes, how they
might be structured, what I think the first episode is going
to look like, how I I would lay that out given the source
material. All of those discussions.
I'll, I'll do a separate podcast episode 4.
And as always, if you have questions you want to submit
about season 2 for me to discuss here, please send them my way
over on Instagram or TikTok or on threads or even here in the
podcast app that you are listening on.
Thank you again if you've made it this far.
I really appreciate you listening and I will be back in
another episode to chat with you again soon.