Connor Storrie's Buzz Cut Is Making Heated Rivalry Fans Freak Out

You can be a keyboard warrior about a few things these days. Harry Styles' unfortunate ticket design. Apple's new folding phone. There's also a lot of people upset about… Connor Storrie's hair. Or, more importantly, his lack of it.The news broke a bit intrusively. Storrie was papped by a fan having lunch, and the photo quickly spread on fan pages. At first, it seemed like there was nothing to it. But then the penny dropped. Something felt off, and the shape of his skull was suddenly more visible. His angelic curls with which he'd risen to notoriety were… gone. He'd gotten a buzz cut.“WHERE ARE HIS CURLS HE CANT SEE WITHOUT HIS CURLS,” responded one panicked user on X. “Please tell me this is ai i cannot do this rn” said another, as well as: “I am v shocked and i can’t believe it’s true.” You get the gist: fans went into a state of mourning. And that's even before the Heated Rivalry fandom chimed in.“Buckle up, I have a lot of thoughts,” says PJ, over email. He's in his late twenties and lives on the east coast, and when he's not working in primary education, he's in fandom spaces like the Heated Rivalry Reddit thread. He hadn't heard of the Game Changers series until he saw a trailer of the show, but picked up a copy of Heated Rivalry after the first two episodes.“I heard rumors that he buzzed it, but it was from nameless and faceless Twitter [X] accounts and so I didn’t take it too seriously,” he tells me. “Probably the day before the pics came out, more and more people claimed to have seen him and confirmed the hairstyle. My initial reaction has not changed at all, which is that I'm extremely disappointed!”His old hair… Jose Perez/Bauer-GriffinVs new LISA O'CONNOR/Getty ImagesIf you don't happen to be well versed in HR lore, let me give you a quick education. Before it was on TV, it was a horned-up book about two ice hockey players in a hidden situationship. The show changed a few things here and there, but for the most part, it was pretty accurate to Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya's (Storrie)'s book arc, which kept the fans happy. In the books, Ilya has curly, golden hair; just like Storrie's ‘do. The problem for fans is that his new cut appeared as filming for season two was underway, and… there's no mention of Ilya shaving his hair in the books. In other words, it's not canon!I met my friend Shannon, a 31-year-old living just outside of Brighton, over a decade ago while studying other gay lit icons as we earned our English degrees. She's a stable friend and a stable person. But, she too, went into a hypnotic trance watching Williams and Storrie do the will-they-won't-they dance on TV. When I ask her what she thinks about Storrie's curls, she describes them as “hot, sexy, beautiful.” That said, his recent red-carpet jaunt at the Emmys showing off his new buzzcut swayed her.“He looks hot,” she says. “He also has such great features—like his eyes, smile and jawline—that I think he pulls it off so well. I also saw some pictures of him on set in a black suit and he looks SO woof.”But what about on Ilya? “I think it suits the storyline he has in the next book, and that he's Russian, but I can’t decide whether it suits his actual character yet,” she says.PJ doesn't agree. “Honestly, I hate every possible reason why he’d do it because it feels so out of character for me,” he says. “I might be able to digest it better if I knew it was only for an episode or two, but with block filming, that would be nearly impossible. It seems like he’ll have the buzz for all 12 episodes (unless he’s wigged, which I don’t love, but I’ll take it if it means Ilya has hair).”In an interview, Rachel Reid, the author of the books, confirms that “people knew” about the buzz cut, which the fandom is assuming means production knew. That semi-confirms the theory that the haircut was a storyline choice, as opposed to Storrie's own personal preference. Much like many other fans, Shannon, Libby, and PJ have their opinions on why.“I think his curls told a bit of a story in season one. The softer he became as a character, the more they leaned into his curls and longer hair,” says Shannon. “Interestingly, in the second book, The Long Game, Shane grows his hair very long. I did read something that said Hudson Williams basically said ‘fuck no’ to growing his hair out and having Shane with a top knot—thank GOD—so it makes me wonder if they’re trying to switch it up by doing this to Ilya.”Another theory, she tells me, is that it's reflective of Ilya struggles with his mental health, a key storyline within the next book. PJ doesn't agree.“A lot of people think that Ilya buzzed it off during a mental health crisis, which we know he'll struggle with in season two, but to me that feels incredibly cliche and trite,” he says. “The only other reason I could see him doing it would be –” [Editor's Note: Spoilers] “–for a fresh start with his new team.”For Shannon, Ilya's hair isn't a reflection of how good or bad the next season will be. “As a super fan of the show and the books, I trust their vision and that regardless of their hair cuts. I will still be feral when it comes out,” she texts me. “Unless Shane gets a top knot, then I’ll have to question some life choices.”A version of this story originally appeared in British GQ.