In hockey, the best advice is to leave everything on the ice. But in the world of hockey romance, the focus is on what happens after the players’ skates — among other things — come off. It’s a winning formula that has just spawned another TV sensation.
Released May 13, Off Campus is Prime Video’s entry into the explosively popular genre. Based on the 2015 book The Deal, by romance author Elle Kennedy, the series follows a group of college hockey stars at the fictional Briar University and the women they fall in love with. Off Campus uses the messy lives of these athletes to explore romance tropes like fake-dating plots, enemies-to-lovers twists, secret relationships, and more. The series also taps into the current craze of new-adult stories — that is, focused on characters in that stage of life between teen and full-fledged adulthood — many specifically set in the pressure-cooker environment that college and university settings naturally supply to make romance spark. And following the success of the steamy HBO Max hit Heated Rivalry, Off Campus is a high-budget argument from Prime Video and creator Louisa Levy that hockey romance isn’t a phase — it’s a genre with plenty to say.
“I got hooked immediately by the characters,” Levy says. “I was excited about telling a love story that has unexpected depths to it. As a TV writer, that’s where my heart sings, and that’s where I got really excited to dig in deeper.”
The Deal is the first book in a 13-book interconnected universe written by Kennedy. Season One of Off Campus centers hockey captain Garret Graham (Belmont Cameli) and music major Hannah Wells (Ella Bright), who start a mutually beneficial fake-dating scheme. Garret needs a philosophy tutor and Hannah needs a boyfriend to capture the interest of her punk-rocker crush, Justin (Josh Heuston). “Ella is magnetic,” Kennedy says. “When you see her, you feel this joy. She’s so talented and she brought Hannah’s dedication to music. And then Belmont is just so charming. He has Garrett’s charisma and presence. When you see him, you know this guy’s gonna protect her.”
Most people might assume Off Campus is just a copycat trying to ride Heated Rivalry’s coattails. Yes, they’re both about hockey players falling in love, complete with eight episodes of TV-MA sex. But Levy believes Off Campus’ unique perspective lies in its college setting, which was no gimmick designed to create distance between the two projects.
“We were well underway before Heated Rivalry even sold to HBO Max,” Levy notes. “It was very exciting to see another hockey romance book on the air. But it didn’t feel too much like they were treading the same water. Our show is so much about the college friendships in the community.”
As Kennedy explains, “In college, you’re dealing with new sexual experiences, leaving home for the first time, developing new friendships. That life stage is an important time in people’s lives. Everything feels heightened and more exciting. And I think that really resonates with people.”
Briar University’s hockey brosLiane Hentscher/PrimeOff Campus fits the bill, delivering sex-heavy episodes with a TV-MA rating. But the show doesn’t just use sex for the sake of a juiced-up rating. Part of Hannah’s storyline revolves a high-school sexual assault, which impacts how she approaches everything from drinking in public to casual sex. Levy tells Rolling Stone that while she refused to make a version of the show that was PG-13, Hannah’s story and emotional journey made her incredibly picky about what sex scenes made the final cut.
“It’s important to me that we’re tapping into the sex-positivity of the books, because it’s so beautiful, and I think it’s so important culturally,” Levy says. “But at no point do I want to put real human beings in front of the camera to do these sex scenes if the scenes are not driving the story forward or furthering character arcs. We spent a lot of time with our intimacy coordinator talking about that, making sure that everyone is on the same page, the cast, all the actors, the director, myself, before even a single frame was shot.”
And the main storyline of Hannah and Garret falling in love doesn’t mean Levy was willing to make hockey an afterthought. The creative team hired Dave Tomlinson, a former player for the Vancouver Canucks, as “hockey coordinator.” Together with stunt coordinator Mike Carpenter, they made sure the plot-driving action kept the integrity of both the story and the game. The team also focused on hiring actors over skaters, then making them plausible as players.
Stephen Kalyn, who plays Dean Di Laurentis, was actually already an experienced hockey player. But after the rest of the lineup was set, the entire cast underwent a three-week hockey boot camp. The show also used hockey body doubles for some of the bigger stunts, which meant going straight to the source: the NHL. The skating double for Garrett is current New York Rangers defenseman Vincent Iorio. “Getting the hockey right was really important to us,” Levy says.
Since the full first season of Off Campus was released, the show has remained in Prime’s Top 10 series. A second season is already in the works, which Levy says is “very close” to beginning filming. And while she declines to reveal who’s starring, she’s eager to delve deeper into the world of Briar University.
“We’re really excited about the book-favorite moments that we’re exploring in Season Two,” she says. “But we want to leave something for the fans to discover.”
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