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. This week, we are continuing on
with our Heated Rivalry Season 2 Q&A.
So this will be Part 3, answering all of the questions
that were submitted to me over on Instagram, TikTok, and on
Threads. And I'm excited for this week's
episode because there's a few really meaty and great questions
that got asked over there that I'm excited to dive into.
And I do want to preface, again, as always, that we will be
discussing spoilers for The Long Game and potential storylines in
Season 2 of the show. So if you have not read The Long
Game or if you are looking to avoid spoilers from The Long
Game or Role Model or any of the other books, you've been warned
that we will be discussing some of them in this week's episode.
And you can come back after Season 2 airs if you want to
listen to our thoughts and some of these questions that were
posed. So the first question that I
wanted to answer is one that I feel like if you follow the
heated rivalry news closely or if you even follow Rachel Reed
herself on social media, the question was whether or not
Unrivaled, which is the next book in Shane and Ilya's story,
got pushed back to better suit Jacob's Season 2 schedule and
the release date. And even though this particular
question hasn't been answered directly, I'm going to go out on
a limb and just confidently state that the answer is no.
Because Rachel herself has expressed that the release date
got pushed back simply because she didn't have enough of the
book completed and in a place that she felt confident about by
the deadline that had previously been set.
And in large part, that was because the launch of the show
has made her very busy and good for her.
I think that her taking the time to write the book she wants and
in the time frame that she needs in order to put out her best
work is really wonderful. And being able to draw that
boundary is super important for an author, especially one that's
been catapulted into this crazy successful time period since the
show has aired. And her being able to not only
just enjoy what's happening to her fully and not be locked away
writing this book, but also spend the time to properly write
it without all of these outside influences clouding what she
wants to put down on the page, I think is really important.
And at the very least, I would suspect that Jacob feels the
same in that if they choose for Season 3 to adapt this new book
unrivaled, he wants the material that he's going to be working
with to be Rachel's best work and the story that she wants to
tell. And of course, just like heated
rivalry season 1 and what we will likely see in season 2,
Jacob will take that and he will take liberties with some of it
in order to make good TV. But on the whole, the story that
Rachel Rights is the one he's going to follow and I don't
think Jacob of everyone would be trying to impact her writing in
any way and her process strictly so that he can move around his
schedule and release dates for the TV series.
They clearly respect each other very much and Jacob is honoring
her original writing so well and I don't think that that would
ever be on the table for him. So the long and short of it, in
my opinion, is no, the release date was pushed back simply
because Rachel needed it and asked for it and she was granted
it. And I think that that's
wonderful and it allows her to go back and write the story she
wants and put out her best work. And I think for Jacob, even
though the turn around time for season 2 is so short, he follows
the same philosophy. I think he he wants to put out
his best work and even though yes, there's pressure for TV
shows in particular rather than authors to meet shorter
deadlines and and churn out content as quickly as possible
and strike while the iron is hot.
I don't think that either of these people are willing to
sacrifice the quality simply for a quicker turn around time.
And for people who are complaining about the turn
around time for season 2, Please note that this is extremely fast
for them to umm out a show in such short form.
They actually moved the release date of the show itself U months
ahead of when it was originally aired to beyond the network
because it was acquired by HBO and then they were actively
editing it while it was coming out week to week back over the
holidays. So for them to write season 2's
scripts and start filming it this summer is incredibly fast.
And we also know that Jacob films in a very quick pace,
succinct way, and he doesn't waste time on the shoots, and
he's very efficient. And so I suspect that the
editing process will probably play out the same way.
And he's using the same team and the same core group is going to
be back. So I expect the product to be,
you know, phenomenal. And yeah, I think that everyone
needs to take a chill pill about timelines.
And you know, I'm as eager as the next person, but I would
rather them take their time and put out the best quality work
that they're capable of and quality work that they're proud
of. And us be patient because I
think that that's that should be the expectation is that the
viewer be patient and let them cook, as they say.
The next question was, how will Jacob Tierney use
cinematography, art direction and music as a plot device in
Season 2? And while this is sort of an
arbitrary question, I do love the question because the
cinematography, the art and the music and everything were such a
key part of the show's success. To me.
It was. It was shot so so beautifully.
And Jackson Perrell, who is in charge of the cinematography, he
also shot a number of shows, but I watched Anne with an EI.
Don't know if anyone else has watched that show.
And I remember watching it and thinking that even though the
story itself was so beautiful, the visuals were almost more
beautiful than the story being told.
And when I noticed just how head and shoulders above other
productions the the cinematography is, it makes me
lock in in a way that I don't with other productions.
And in part that's because of his color grading and also the
type of camera that he's using. And all of those factor into how
Jacob would then figure out how he wants to compose his shots
because he's working with a very wide angle camera and the colors
in that camera are very specific.
And so all of those things sort of play hand in hand into how he
would be imagining the visuals of each of these scenes that
he's writing and mapping out what he wants them to look like.
So I expect more of the same. I think that we're going to
continue to see motifs similar to Season 1 where Shane and Ilya
are pictured far apart and then over the course of the season,
they get closer together. I think there's going to be a
visual language like that to convey where we are in their
relationship and what the dynamics are between them.
I think we're going to do more of the same visual callbacks, so
we'll have a lot of repetitive shots and scenes.
Same with some of their physicality choices.
So how we saw Ilya rubbing his ear or his thumb on things when
he's anxious or nervous. I think we'll get continuations
of those types of key tells for each of the characters.
And then I think we'll be introduced to new ones because
again, time has passed and they're different people now.
They're in an established relationship with one another.
And we're going to have to see them interacting in public with
people who know that they're together, but also people who
don't know that they're together.
And So what kind of visual cues are we going to have to clue us
into how they're thinking and feeling in those moments?
And I think that those are going to be used just like they were
in Season 1, to draw parallels and make connections between
each of the episodes of the season in terms of the art.
I think that will be really, really interesting because we're
going to have all new sets for Season 2 because Shane sells his
apartment and buys a house for Season 2 and Ilya is moving out
of Boston and moving to Ottawa and he buys a house.
So the two of them are both going to have new homes that
we're going to see them existing in.
And I wonder if they're going to make a point to say that the two
of them were involved in the decorating process at all in
each of their homes, even though they're, you know, unique to the
individual person. I think that it would be funny
if Shane or Ilya had input into what was picked out or selected
in each of their respective homes, especially where Shane
hired a designer, and it was made to be very impersonal.
And I think that it would be very clever if, again, the show
uses the artwork as a way to convey deeper meaning because
Ilya's home in particular had a lot of artwork that was very
telling and revealed a lot. And Shane's house being pared
back and and more nondescript was also really telling.
So how does that evolve over time?
Do they have pieces in each other's homes that reflect the
other person? We know that in the long game,
in particular Ilya's home, he puts light specific lighting in
his gym because Shane has it in his gym at home and he knows
that Shane likes that, so he has it installed in his house.
So I suspect we'll have stuff like that.
But in regards to actual art on the wall, I think that that is
going to be another way that the show subtly conveys messages to
us. Because I thought it was really
brilliant how they did that in Season 1 and showing how their
tastes change as time goes on and what's trendy now as time's
gone on. And all of those things also are
really easy ways to indicate what time period we're in
without having to explicitly state it.
So the way the furniture looks in 2020 is going to be different
than how it looked in 2012. For example.
The art on the wall is going to be different because of what
year it's in. So that's another really
interesting way that we're going to see creative direction have
an impact in Season 2 because the visuals of Season 2, I think
color grading wise are going to be the same.
I think the types of Steadicam, hopefully we get some more one
shots, like longer shots. Again, I think using the sort of
like hurricane movement that we got or the tornado movement that
we got to indicate when things feel like they're spiraling out
of control, that's a really creative thing that I hope we
see again. In addition to that, the music,
I think that knowing we have more of the original score to
expand upon by the composer Peter, Peter is exciting.
I think what we'll see is a lot of the rivalry themed music is
going to get phased out and a lot of the songs used to mark
different periods of Shane and Ilyas relationship are going to
get expanded upon. So similar to how we have one
soul and two souls, and how we hear 2 souls first and one soul
pulls melodies from that original piece and expands upon
it. I think that Peter, Peter is
probably going to do the same thing with the Season 2 score
and then introduce some new theme music to represent
different facets of both Shane and Ilya's storyline.
So there's probably going to be a very melancholic song to
represent when the two of them are fighting or arguing or when
they feel the most distant with one another.
There's probably going to be a song to represent them getting
engaged. I'm getting married.
I think that would be obvious. And I also think that we're
going to get music for some of these new characters that we're
going to get introduced to because Episode 3 had all
separate original music to represent Scott and Kipp.
So I expect that as well in Season 2.
This is a hockey related question that I was actually
really excited to get because it is relevant to Season 2.
And I also think that if you are not a fan of hockey or didn't
play like I did, you really would not be Privy to this
information. So the question was, why do the
centaurs have the money for both Ilya and Shane?
How does that work from a hockey standpoint?
I've heard something about a salary cap, but I know little to
nothing about hockey so I thought I would ask you.
So I'll do my best to explain this.
There's a lot of particulars about this, so I'm trying to
make it as simple as possible for people and hopefully this
all makes sense. But it's important to also note
that in the long game, Ilya tells Shane to have his agent
inquire with Ottawa directly on his behalf to figure out the
particulars of making a deal with them.
And that's very common. That agent would be the one
negotiating on the client's behalf, but in the book we never
get the details of Shane's deal with Ottawa.
We do, however, get Shane telling Ilya that he just wants
to be paid what he's worth, and Ilya points out to him that it's
a good thing he has a rich husband.
So that's all important context to keep in mind here, because
it's also relevant that Shane has been doing commercials and
has had brand deals throughout his entire career.
And it's largely implied in the books that the money from those
deals is meant to give him the nest egg he needs to support his
retirement. And he was smart with his money.
He invested in real estate. And that's something that has
been woven into Shane's character over the course of
heated rivalry in the long game. And so all of those factors
would weigh in on his decision making regarding the deal he's
willing to sign. So it's important to keep all of
that in mind. And it's not abnormal for
athletes in that position to take advantage of brand deals
and commercials and set that money aside and act like it's
not there. Because hockey in particular, in
the grand scheme of professional sports, is one of the lower
paying professional sports. And so if you're not a
superstar, you're making good money, you know, as it pertains
to the average person, but your career is very short.
And if you get hurt, your career is cut even shorter.
And so it's smart for people to put aside money separately that
they can use when their career inevitably ends.
And then they have to figure out what their second career is
going to be. And most of them are quite young
when that happens. So Shane did everything right.
And yes, he's a superstar. He's a captain.
He would have been making a really, really great base salary
his entire NHL career or MLH in the in the show.
But the brand deals and the commercials that he's been
doing, they might arguably pay him better and he could have not
touched his salary from the NHL and just lived off of his
commercial and brand deal money and been perfectly OK.
And so Shane's not hurting for for cash, let's put it that way,
going into this part of the story and the end of the long
game. Just keep that in mind.
So it wouldn't surprised me, I guess is the point if Shane were
to take a pay cut in order to join Ottawa, because he's going
to be financially fine and Ilya is also going to be financially
fine. He makes a ton of money.
He's the star of that team. They would be paying him
handsomely to be the face of Ottawa.
But for the sake of argument, and for the question that was
presented here, I'll do my best to explain how the cap works.
So basically, the NHL has 32 teams and is designed.
The cap is designed to make sure that every team has a fair
chance to win the Stanley Cup every year, and that's done
through a series of checks and balances.
So every team gets an allotted amount of money at the start of
each season. And that's the cap or the limit,
basically. So each team gets the same
amount of money, everyone's on an an equal level playing field.
That number changes every year just because of the market and,
you know, everything going on, inflation, all that stuff.
And the number is determined at the start of each season.
And so the cap at the beginning of the long game would be
different than the cap at the end of the long game when Shane
leaves Montreal and goes to Ottawa, and it would be
different than the current 1. So keep that in mind too.
The numbers that we're talking about, if you were to look up
the current salary cap are going to be very different than the
one that would be available at the time of the long game, the
events in the long game. Each year, teams are given a
dollar amount that they cannot exceed when it comes to playing
all of the pairs on their teams combined salaries.
And that dollar amount is what is called the cap.
So just for the sake of argument, last year's was $88
million. That's the cap.
So if you are Montreal or Boston, the total amount of
money you can spend to pay your your current active roster
cannot exceed that number. If there was no limit on how
much a franchise could spend on its roster, then a team could
just go out and buy all the best players and it would
dramatically tilt the results and the league.
And it would give a very unfair advantage to teams that might
have stronger fan bases or are older franchises like the
original 6 teams or are located in places where people are
wealthier. There are some teams that are in
arguably cities that don't have as large a fan bases versus ones
that have long standing, deep seated, very loyal fan bases.
And so those teams make more money.
Similarly to how there are certain teams in other sports
that you can go anywhere on earth and a New York Yankees hat
will be somewhere or a Boston Red Sox hat.
All of that money pours into the franchise.
And there are some teams that have more money than others, so
if they could just spend whatever they wanted to build
the best roster, they would always be winning and it
wouldn't be even on the opposite side of that coin, teams also
have a minimum spend, so they can't be under a certain dollar
amount either. And that makes sure that each
team is making an attempt to sign good players and good deals
with those players, and they're not then pocketing the
difference. So if you only spent $68,000,000
and the cap is 88 and you're getting $88,000,000 to spend on
your players, you can't then pocket the difference, if that
makes sense. So then there's also this thing
called a cap hit. And the simplest way to describe
this is that you have to figure out what's called the average
annual value of each player on your rosters contract.
And so you do that by taking the total salary and signing bonus
that a player receives on their contract and then dividing it by
the contract's length. And that number is what goes
against the team's salary cap, regardless of what the player
makes in that year. So again, this helps keep every
team under that league mandated limit that they can spend.
So for example, say Shane signed A2 year deal with Ottawa for $14
million and the contract itself might say that he gets
$5,000,000 for his first year and then he gets 9 million in
his second year. But per how the salary this cap
hit works, his salary would be $14 million divided by the
length of the contract, so two years.
So for the cap hit, it counts as $7,000,000 each year, even if he
gets paid 5 million the first year against the cap hit, it's
7,000,000 for Shane Hollander on your roster.
And those contracts can also include performance bonuses.
So players can get a bonus if they make the playoffs or if
they make it to a certain round in the playoffs, they can get a
bonus for scoring a certain amount of goals or assists or
how many total points they get. And so all of those incentives
help to encourage your players to perform well.
And that money does not get calculated into the cap hit the
same way. So that's another important
detail to remember. The reason they do this is again
to prevent teams from paying a player a lot in their first year
under a contract. So like front loading the
contract and then paying them less in their subsequent years
in order to free up more space on their cap to sign other
players. So by using that average annual
value number instead of the actual dollar amount of each
player per year, it helps level the playing field further.
One thing that can happen though, which does sort of bend
the rules slightly, is if a player on your roster were to
get hurt, they could get put on long term injured reserve and
effectively be taken off your roster even though they still
are on the team. And if they're not fit to play,
then their average annual value gets removed from your cap
space. So a team can go and replace the
player that's unfit to play, hire someone else to take their
place. And that happens often closer to
playoff time when people are prone to getting injured.
And as soon as that hurt player is effectively removed from the
roster, that cap hit gets subtracted from the cap space.
So that's when you see a lot of movement on these teams to
again, acquire people and they might only keep them for the
playoffs and then they'll trade them at the end of the season.
So again, it's like a way of sort of manipulating this rule
about cap space. Now when the playoffs actually
start, there's no longer a cap. So so teams can front load their
teams with all the best players, even if they're active rosters,
salaries exceed the cap. And the goal at that point is to
put the best team forward for the playoffs.
So essentially the entire regular season is a game of
strategizing how to find the best value for your money within
that cap. So last year was $88 million.
The team that best utilizes their $88 million is going to go
further theoretically in the playoff run.
And then by the time they make it into the playoffs, then it's
sort of a free for all because you can go snag players from
teams that are not going to make the playoffs and are willing to
sign a deal because they want a chance at winning a Stanley Cup.
So that's why you see a lot of movement right before the
playoffs when teams are trying to acquire the best players
available in order to give themselves the best chance of
winning. In the case of Shane and Ilya,
Ilya's contract would undoubtedly be the highest
paying one on Ottawa's roster, and the team had been
notoriously bad when he got there.
So a majority of the other players on Ottawa would probably
not warrant huge contracts to begin with.
And Ilya's would be the one that takes up the most space for the
cap hit that the team sort of is presented as.
It's like a a band of misfit toys.
And until the possibility of Shane coming over to the team, I
don't think that a lot of those guys were making a lot of money.
But as they started to win and their value went up, they would
all be renegotiating their salaries.
So if they weren't leaving Ottawa and going somewhere else
at the end of each of those seasons when Ilya's on the team,
they would be renegotiating and they would say to them, hey,
look, last year I only scored, you know, 15 goals.
In this season I scored thirty. I'm worth more money now.
So I'm renegotiating and I want more money.
That would be happening on Ottawa as soon as they turn the
ship around, All of the guys on that roster and their agents
would be trying to renegotiate and get more money if they
wanted to stay. And so that also would factor
into Shane's contract because the cap space would be getting
tighter and tighter if all of the other players on the team
are asking for more money. But the truth of the matter is
that Shane Hollander is going to be worth more than anyone on
that on that roster. He's going to get paid
significantly higher than anybody else besides Ilya, and
the only way that it would make sense that he could join that
team and not completely implode the rest of their roster is if
he took a pay cut. And it's not uncommon for
players to take pay cuts, especially if they're going to
play for their hometown teams or to stay on a team that they
really love or stay in a city that they really love and
they've raised their family in and they've become a part of.
For example, in Boston, we had players who were paid less than
their market value for almost their entire careers because
they would rather stay on Boston and play on a team full of good
players. Then go to a team, get overpaid
and be the only great player. You know, maybe one or two great
players on that roster and not be able to win or go to playoffs
because you can't win with just one or two superstars.
And I think that Ilya more or less represents that in the long
game of until everybody else steps up their game and they
acquire Troy and they get, you know, Wyatt playing really well
and they get Lucas Haas, All of those additions start to slowly
build up their roster because Ilia isn't the only one expected
to score every goal and win every game.
That's sort of how it works in the real world, too, in the NHL.
So it's a pretty true representation and I hope we get
some sort of dialogue explaining what his contract structure
would look like. I'd be curious if they even
touch on that. But if we don't, hopefully this
gives you a better understanding of what those negotiations might
look like and how they could have acquired Shane.
I would be willing to bet that Ilya would renegotiate his
salary, too, if it would help with cap space.
So all those factors go into that decision making and what
that number looks like. And again, Shane has money
coming in from other avenues and he's going to hopefully continue
to have those deals. I hope that's not something that
gets taken away from him once he and Ilya announce that they're
together. I don't think that's been
touched upon yet in the book. So that will be another
interesting thing for the show to address or Rachel to address
in Unrivaled. The next question I got is from
Tiffany and she said I wanted to talk about Troy and how his
character serves the purpose of mirroring Ilya in some ways.
Not 100%, but in quite a few. By the end of his character arc,
he's able to come out on Pride Night and essentially have
everything Ilya wants but cannot have, and Ilya is forced to
watch. I think having us see things
from Ilya's point of view can help convey his depression and
sadness well, and I'd love to hear what you think.
So Tiffany and I also had a separate little conversation in
my DMS about this topic and I asked her if I could share this
on the podcast because I think it's just such a great topic to
talk about. And I said to her that I totally
see Troy as an Ilya 2 point O in many ways because like Ilya, he
has sort of become hardened because of his background,
particularly with his father, just like Ilya has.
And Ilya for the most part has maintained his softness, at
least internally, but he still outwardly carries a lot of
wounds. And Troy is the same way.
And I think I personally connected with Role Model more
than the other books because Ilya interacts with Troy more
than any of the other characters from the other books.
And I do believe that must stem in some small part from Ilia
being able to see so much of himself in Troy.
And Ilia wants to help him and he spends all of Troye book
helping him in small ways and big ones.
And so in the long game, we're getting Ilya's point of view of
what happens between the two of them.
And when Troy arrives, his reputation very much precedes
him. And Ilya is not thrilled about
having him join Ottawa because of his proximity to Dallas Kent
and everything that has happened with Dallas Kent up until that
point. Troy is also not dealing with
his issues in a healthy way. Tiffany pointed that out in her
question to me, her original question.
And so we also get to meet Troy's dad and get to see those
dynamics clearly, both from Ilya's point of view and also in
the long game from Troy's point of view.
So we get both angles there. And Ilya immediately recognizes
that Troy's father is a piece of crap and how that would impact
Troy. And I think he can empathize
with him almost instantly once he gets that insight into who
his father is and how he's hiding from him in the hotel
room in Vancouver and and drinking the night before a
game. And then we also learn about how
Troy is a lot closer with his mother, but she is physically
far away from him because she's travelling the world while he's
going through all of these hardships essentially alone.
Similarly, Ilia was much closer to his mother naturally, the
difference being she's no longer alive, but her body and her
grave are also far away from Ilia too in Moscow.
So even if he wished to go back to visit or talk to her, he
can't. And then Ilia has to observe
Troy's mom coming to his game and he gets to see him be able
to hug his mother. And I would imagine that Ilya
would be hurt by that. Even though he's happy for Troy,
it would still make him sad for himself in many ways too.
I also think Troy gets to meet Harris with Ilya's help, fall in
love with him, come out to the team, be accepted by the team,
and then decide to come out publicly on Pride night.
And that's all happening within a very, very short period of
time. And when the team learns about
Harris and Troy, they still love him and respect him, and Troy
has all these friends that he can lean on for support.
And all of these things are just slowly compounding.
And they're all the things that Ilya has wanted for over a
decade but has been denied. And so for him to have to watch
Troy from inside the same locker room, be apart from Shane, have
all of these difficulties going on with Shane behind the scenes.
And it's, it's just not a wonder to me that he falls apart in
Shane's arms after the Pride Night game.
Yes, that means that for Season 2, Troy's storyline and
character arc is going to be hugely important in conveying
Ilya's emotions because he's involved in a lot of the
particulars that Ilya's feelings stem from.
I'm personally really excited for how they're going to use
Troy as a vehicle for Ilya's depression and sadness.
And I think a lot of people have been worried about screen time
and spending too much time with Troy and Harris.
But I believe that most of what we will see of them will be
mainly to further convey how Ilya's feeling and what he's
struggling with because he's such an important part of the
long game. Troy is that I hope they're
they're able to cast someone who can carry the weight of that.
That person needs to work well off of Connor's version of Ilya,
obviously, but he also has to be someone who Shane would be
believably jealous of. He needs to be able to convey a
deep seated sadness similar to Ilya's at the beginning, and
then we need to see what he's like when he's shy around
Harris. Then we need to see him when
he's happy and open and capable of being funny and what it looks
like for him to be in love. So it's a big ask for whoever
they cast. It's also unique because Role
Model and everything that quote, UN quote happens to Troy often
includes Ilya or is thanks to Ilya, and Role Model is the only
book where that's the case. Normally Ilya is just popping in
and out, and then he leaves, and Ilya is the one in the Role
Model that's encouraging Troy to talk to Harris, and he makes
that entire love story happen. He's also the one bringing him
to the Kingfisher bar in New York, and he's the one that Troy
feels comfortable enough to come out to and who Ilya decides to
come out to as well. You know, Troy tells Ilya about
coming out on Pride Night. Ilya is the one that supports
him, and his support means the world to Troy.
So the whole plot of Role Model has Ilya's hands all over it in
so many ways, but it's still playing directly into Ilya's own
story. So I almost see it as a book
written entirely in support of the long game.
And I suspect that whatever we get of the storylines from Role
Model will be presented through Ilya's point of view more so
than through choice, at least in the moments outside of the
standalone episode. If we were to get one with Troy,
all of this is really, really important to include because
after Pride Night, Ilya has the biggest crash out with Shane,
and that moment shared between them is something that has to be
handled with so much care. And it's going to be incredibly
poignant and heartbreaking for both of them, but for Ilya
especially. But it's also necessary, too.
I'm really excited to see what Jacob does with it because it's
so important in the grand scheme of the storyline and for Ilya's
character and just understanding where he's at and and seeing a
side of him that we haven't seen before.
And I I'm so excited to see Connor story dive into that
material and whatever Jacob writes, because it's going to be
very emotional for everyone involved and require a lot of
trust. That moment doesn't hit as hard
without building up the relationship between Troy and
Ilya properly. So he is really important in the
grand scheme of this story. Yes, you could frame Season 2 by
following strictly Shane and Ilia, but a lot of Ilia's
emotions and feelings and struggles are amplified by his
team and Troy in particular. But they also hold a magnifying
glass up or a mirror up to himself.
I would say in a way that I think Shane not being there, he
can't be the person to help Ilya through a lot of these problems.
And that's part of the disconnect between the two of
them. And so Ilya has to find other
ways to build that community around him.
And it starts with Troy and it starts with Harris, and you
can't get the long game without that.
So I, I, I don't want them to skimp on that.
I think that it's necessary to include.
And I'm really excited about who they cast to play Troy because
like I said, he's got a lot of weight on his shoulders to carry
and his character is really, really important.
So I hope that it's someone that is a a new actor that we all get
to discover together and that they're able to take Jacob's
beautiful writing and put out a performance that they're proud
of and then put them on the map in a way that heated rivalry
Season 1 did for Hudson and Connor as well.
So that was very long winded. If you've made it to the end,
thank you so much. And I think I'm going to end
this Q&A part three there. I do still have a handful of
other questions and topics to touch on.
So I might be recording a part 4, which is crazy to think
about, but I also have a number of other episodes that I want to
record. I know a lot of people have been
asking me hockey specific questions and I think that that
would be something fun to record as well and touch upon in future
episodes. So if you have any hockey
related questions, be sure to send them my way on Tiktok or
Instagram and I'll try my best to answer them in my hockey
specific episode that I plan to record.
As always, thank you so much for listening and chatting with me,
and I look forward to talking again soon.