It would have been a surprise if Saturday Night Live hadn’t eventually taken aim at Heated Rivalry. Since its first season wrapped last month, the series has lingered stubbornly in the cultural conversation, bolstered by a swift second-season renewal and a Golden Globes appearance from stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The hockey romance has fast become shorthand for HBO’s run of buzzy, sexually charged crowd-pleasers. SNL’s response came in the form of a pre-taped sketch that masqueraded as a trailer for a “new” Harry Potter television series for HBO, pointedly not the long-anticipated official adaptation. “Coming soon to HBO, the beloved wizarding world of Harry Potter makes its television debut,” the voiceover announced, before undercutting itself: “With an all new story hastily written after the success of a certain other HBO show…” Hosted by Finn Wolfhard, the sketch cast Wolfhard as Harry Potter opposite SNL cast member Ben Marshall as Ron Weasley. Their first encounter at Hogwarts quickly turned into a knowingly overheated exchange, packed with innuendo that mirrored Heated Rivalry’s central dynamic. “You dropped your wand. It’s lovely, by the way,” Ron purred. “I’d love to see yours sometime,” Harry replied. “You would.” Retitled Heated Wizardry, the parody swapped hockey for Quidditch, but kept the core premise intact: two fierce rivals locked in a secret romance they insist is purely antagonistic. The sketch leaned hard into double entendres, visual gags and increasingly absurd spellwork, including mock texting jokes and lines like “what’s the spell to make something bigger?”A fake review from J.K. Rowling briefly flashed on screen reading, “I am not a part of this,” a pointed aside in light of the author’s long-running and widely criticised statements on transgender issues. The loudest reaction, though, came with the arrival of Rubeus Hagrid, played in a surprise cameo by Jason Momoa. When Harry and Ron approached him to confess their relationship, Momoa’s Hagrid cut them off with a blunt, shocking line, “You’re a homo, Harry,” a deliberately crude twist on the character’s famous introduction in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that drew immediate gasps and laughter. Online, the sketch was quickly shared as another moment in Heated Rivalry’s expanding visibility. The original series, which airs on HBO Max in the US and Crave in Canada, centres on Canadian star Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and his Russian-born rival Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two professional hockey players whose long-running situationship unfolds alongside their on-ice rivalry.
