Briar University Is Already Getting a Second Run
Off Campus launched on Prime Video on May 13, 2026, and before most viewers had finished the first episode, a second season was already a done deal. The fake-dating hockey romance – adapted from Elle Kennedy’s book series of the same name – arrived with enough pre-release momentum that Prime Video had greenlit Season 2 before Season 1 hit screens. For anyone who burned through all of it over a single weekend, that’s genuinely good news.
The show follows Hannah Wells, played by Ella Bright, a musician with serious ambitions who gets entangled in a fake relationship with ice hockey standout Garrett Graham, played by Belmont Cameli. Josh Heuston, known to Australian drama fans from Heartbreak High, rounds out the central trio as Justin Kohl, a magnetic fellow musician whose presence complicates everything. The first season’s blend of campus romance, athletic pressure, and Y.A. emotional beats clearly landed – the renewal came fast enough to raise eyebrows.
The Scripts Are Done and Production Is Close
Show creator Louisa Levy confirmed to Variety earlier this month that “all eight scripts are written” for Season 2. That’s not a vague promise of development – it’s a full season already on paper, waiting to go in front of cameras. Levy made the comment while the Season 1 press tour was still wrapping up, which signals a production timeline moving faster than most streaming shows allow.
Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli confirmed during that same press tour that they were heading back into production almost immediately after finishing their Season 1 promotional duties. Some industry observers have speculated a start date as early as June 1, 2026. No official release window has been announced, but the pace of development suggests fans won’t face the long gaps that typically accompany streaming renewals.
What makes that acceleration interesting is what it says about Prime Video’s confidence in the property. Streaming platforms don’t pre-greenlight seasons or rush scripts into production for shows they expect to perform modestly. The Off Campus TV adaptation had already generated significant attention before its release, and the subscriber data Prime Video collects internally would have given them early signals about viewership trajectory. Writing all eight Season 2 scripts before Season 1 even aired is a financial and logistical commitment – it’s not the kind of decision made casually.
There is still no confirmed release date. Given that production may begin in June 2026, a late 2026 or early 2027 window seems plausible, but Prime Video has not announced anything official. For a show that moved this quickly to renewal, the waiting period between seasons could end up being shorter than usual.
New Central Characters Take the Stage
Season 2 shifts focus away from Hannah and Garrett entirely. Dean Di Laurentis and Allie Hayes are set to lead the new season, following the relationship arc structure that the show borrowed from Kennedy’s book series. The format mirrors what Bridgerton does on Netflix – each season centers a different couple while the broader ensemble and campus setting remain intact.
That structure makes sense given how Kennedy’s books work. The second novel in the series moves to Dean and Allie’s story, and the show appears to be tracking closely to that source material. For readers of the books, the Season 1 cliffhanger already pointed toward this shift. For viewers who came in fresh, it’s a format adjustment that requires some buy-in – the leads you spent eight episodes with essentially become supporting players.
Why 2026 Became the Year of Hockey Romance
Off Campus didn’t arrive in a vacuum. The cultural appetite for sports romance – particularly hockey romance – has been building steadily, driven partly by a surge in the romance novel market and partly by the specific energy that hockey as a sport carries on screen: physical, fast, emotionally heightened. Kennedy’s Off Campus book series has been circulating in online reading communities for years, and its fanbase came into the adaptation already primed and vocal.
The show’s viral traction in its opening days reflects how that pre-existing readership functions as an amplifier. Fans who loved the books promoted the adaptation aggressively on social platforms, which pulled in viewers who had never encountered Kennedy’s work. That combination – devoted source-material fans plus newcomers discovering the story through the show – is exactly what streaming platforms want from an adaptation.
There are now eight Season 2 scripts written, two leads confirmed in Dean Di Laurentis and Allie Hayes, and a cast that was heading back to set before the ink on Season 1’s debut had even dried. Whether the new central relationship lands with the same intensity as Garrett and Hannah’s arc is the question the production is quietly racing to answer.
Dean Di Laurentis carries a very different energy from Garrett Graham in Kennedy’s novels – sharper edges, less immediately sympathetic. How the show’s writers translate that onto screen for an audience that only just fell for the first couple will determine whether Off Campus holds its momentum or becomes another adaptation that peaked in its debut season.
