If you’ve spent any time on Heated Rivalry fan accounts recently, you’ve probably seen the speculation. Noah Schnapp and showrunner Jacob Tierney started following each other on Instagram, and the internet immediately did what the internet does: ran with it.

Is there anything actually to it? Let’s go through what’s real, what’s rumour, and why this particular rumour is more interesting than most.

Heated Rivalry Season 2 is confirmed and moving fast. Production is aiming to start in August 2026, with a target release window of April 2027. The season will be based on The Long Game, the sixth book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, picking up Shane and Ilya’s story as they’re forced to choose between their relationship and their hockey careers.

A casting call has already gone out for eight new characters joining the second season. So the production is actively looking for people right now, which makes the timing of any casting rumours more meaningful than usual.

Creator Jacob Tierney has described The Long Game as “an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously,” adding that “you’re in much more serious territory” from an adaptation standpoint. The implication being that Season 2 is going to go deeper and darker than the first, which is saying something for a show that already had people completely wrecked by its penultimate episode.

Where Did This Noah Schnapp Rumour Actually Come From?

The whole thing started simply enough. Noah Schnapp and Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney started following each other on Instagram, prompting immediate fan speculation about whether Schnapp might be joining the show for Season 2.

On its own, an Instagram follow is pretty thin evidence of anything. Celebrities follow each other all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with professional projects. But what makes this one harder to dismiss is the context around it.

Tierney received the Showrunner Award at the Critics Choice Association’s 3rd Annual Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Television, while Schnapp received the Breakthrough Performance Award at the same event, specifically for his portrayal of Will Byers coming out in the 1980s in Stranger Things’ final season. So they weren’t just two random industry people who happened to click follow. They were honoured at the same ceremony, for work that sits in the same space, at almost exactly the same time as the follow happened.

That’s a bit more than a coincidence. It doesn’t confirm anything, but it puts the two of them in the same room, being celebrated for overlapping reasons, right as Season 2 casting is actively underway.

Why Noah Schnapp and Heated Rivalry Is Not a Crazy Idea

Put the Instagram follow aside for a second and just think about the fit.

Schnapp spent the final season of Stranger Things playing a gay character navigating an unrequited love story in the 1980s, and he’s spoken in interviews about how deeply personal that arc was. Heated Rivalry is a queer love story set in the world of professional hockey, created by someone who clearly knows how to handle that kind of material with care and authenticity. The tonal overlap is real.

Schnapp is also, as of graduating from Wharton in May 2026, genuinely available for the first time in his career. Nine years of Stranger Things is over. He’s said publicly he’s ready to play something completely different. A role in a show like Heated Rivalry, which sits at the intersection of sports drama and queer romance, would be about as far from Will Byers as you can get while still playing to the emotional range he’s already demonstrated he has.

The timing fits too. Production on Season 2 is aiming to begin in August 2026, which means casting decisions are being made right now, in July. If Schnapp was going to be in this show, an Instagram follow in late June would make complete sense as a first public signal.

But none of this is confirmed. That needs to be said clearly.

There has been no announcement from Schnapp’s team. No announcement from Jacob Tierney. No trade report, no casting confirmation, nothing. The casting call for eight new characters has gone out but no names attached to any of those roles have been made public.

The Heated Rivalry fandom is extremely active and passionate, and the speculation around this has been loud enough that it can start to feel like confirmation when it isn’t. Over 30,000 works have been posted about the show on AO3 alone. When that level of engagement meets a single Instagram follow, things escalate quickly.

It’s also worth noting that Tierney has a separate Netflix project in development: a drama series about Alexander the Great and Aristotle, produced by Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films. An Instagram follow from Schnapp could theoretically relate to that project instead, or to nothing professional at all.

Here’s where things actually stand as of early July 2026.

The rumour has more going for it than a typical celebrity Instagram follow story. The shared awards ceremony, the timing relative to casting, the thematic fit, and Schnapp’s stated desire to play something completely different all make it plausible in a way that deserves attention.

But plausible is not the same as confirmed. And there’s a real risk with this kind of story that the fan enthusiasm around Heated Rivalry and the fan enthusiasm around Schnapp’s post-Stranger Things future amplify each other into something that sounds more concrete than it is.

The honest answer right now is: nobody outside the production knows. If Schnapp is in talks for Season 2, it hasn’t leaked. If he’s already cast, the announcement hasn’t dropped. And if this is simply two people who met at an awards show and followed each other on Instagram, that’s also a completely normal thing that happens all the time.

What’s clear is that Season 2 is happening, it’s casting right now, and it’s going to be one of the most anticipated shows of 2027 regardless of who ends up in it. If Schnapp’s name does get announced, you’ll hear about it here first.

Last updated: July 2026. This article will be updated as new casting information becomes available.

aamir