At last, studios have learned the power of straight women who fetishize gay men. Every production company is scrambling to produce their own version of HBO’s Heated Rivalry. Just this week, Netflix has announced three new gay TV shows that will get cancelled after one season! One of them being the highly anticipated Heated Knightlery.
The show will follow Steve and Bernie, two 20-somethings working at Medieval Times as jousting knights. They start off as friendly coworkers, but when there’s a promotion to Head-Knight up for grabs, the two become fierce competitors, each one trying to defeat the other in their daily jousts. Soon this intense competition turns into something deeper when the two men run into each other outside of the arena. How will they navigate their contention while also yearning for each other’s bodies?
To the public’s surprise, Lena Dunham has been set to direct Heated Knightlery. This will definitely be a change in pace for Dunham as she’s most known for her TV show Girls and her recent Netflix show Too Much. When asked about how she feels not directing a cast of white women, she stated, “They’re white gay guys, what’s the difference?” Yikes.
Machine Gun Kelly (Colson Baker) is set to play Steve, who is said to be the “nonchalant and rebellious” one. Kelly has expressed much excitement to take on this role.
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do some gay shit,” Kelly told Vanity Fair in an interview last week. This was surprising, as most people assumed he already had.
As of today, Noah Schnapp has been confirmed to play opposite Kelly as Bernie, the bubbly and emotional one of the pair. We haven’t gotten a statement from Schnapp about the role, but maybe that is for the better. Many people don’t want to hear him speak.
Heated Knightlery starts filming in about a month and its expected release is early 2027. Netflix has high hopes for this project as well as their other gay TV shows in the works that will also probably be as absurd and offensive as this one. However, Netflix isn’t the only production company rushing to make gay TV, with Hulu and Peacock also having some in development. Some of the upcoming productions include Heated Presley, a love story about two rival Elvis Presley impersonators in Vegas, and Icy Rivalry which follows two competing ice cream truck drivers whose ice cold conflict turns steamy. Keep an eye out for these shows coming soon.
It’s clear that with Heated Rivalry’s success we will be seeing a lot more straight guys kissing on TV. Can’t wait!
Amelia Elliott is a sophomore Writing for Film, TV, and Emerging Media major who can’t wait for Heated Presley. They can be contacted at aelliott2@ithaca.edu.