Will Hudson Williams, Dylan O'Brien Have Bed Scenes In Apparatus? Heated Rivalry Star Swaps Hockey For Violent Thriller

Hudson Williams is trading the ice rink for something far nastier on screen, with the Heated Rivalry breakout set to lead a new thriller Apparatus opposite Dylan O'Brien, Entertainment Weekly reported from Los Angeles on 27 March 2026. The film, which has not yet begun production, will see Williams play a young rideshare driver drawn into a violent scheme by O'Brien's character in what is being billed as a darkly comic feature debut for Canadian actor‑filmmaker Sofia Banzhaf.

The news came after a year in which Hudson Williams' profile shifted almost overnight. For starters, the Canadian actor became a viral name when Heated Rivalry landed on HBO Max late last year, its mix of queer romance and hockey drama turning a niche Crave series into an international talking point.

Williams' turn as Shane, one half of a pair of rival players whose animosity flips into attraction, has already earned him a Canadian Screen Award nomination and pushed the show to 18 nods overall, including best drama series and a directing mention for Jacob Tierney.

Hudson Williams Swaps Hockey For 'Darkly Comedic' Violence

In Apparatus, Hudson Williams will play Tyler, described as a struggling young rideshare driver. According to the synopsis, Tyler falls under the spell of JP, a self-styled entrepreneur played by Teen Wolf alum Dylan O'Brien. JP promises Tyler a future in his handheld massager business, but the supposed opportunity steadily collapses as JP drags him into an increasingly violent downward spiral.

The project is being framed as a 'darkly comedic thriller,' which is a notable departure from the earnest emotional beats that defined Hudson Williams' work in Heated Rivalry. It is also one of his first feature roles to be announced since that series made him a fan favourite, and the pairing with O'Brien appears deliberately calibrated to tap into both men's online followings.

Entertainment Weekly suggested the casting could 'maximise their joint fandom,' a line that feels less like PR spin than an acknowledgment of how loudly social media reacted the moment their names appeared in the same sentence.

Sofia Banzhaf will direct Apparatus from a script she co-wrote with Grayson Moore, whose previous credits include the thriller Cardinals. Production dates and locations are still being finalised, and there is no word yet on additional casting.

With no cameras rolling, there is also no firm information about how explicit the film intends to be; any speculation about 'bed scenes' between Hudson Williams and Dylan O'Brien is just that, and nothing of the sort has been confirmed. For now, details beyond the official synopsis should be taken with a grain of salt.

Post‑'Heated Rivalry', Hudson Williams Builds A Darker CV

If Apparatus represents a new tonal lane, it does not arrive in isolation. Before signing on to the film, Hudson Williams had just wrapped Yaga, a half‑hour drama series built around the myth of Baba Yaga, the witch-like figure from Slavic folklore. The show, adapted from a play by Kat Sandler, casts Sandler as writer and showrunner across eight episodes and pulls together an ensemble that includes The Matrix star Carrie‑Anne Moss, Schitt's Creek actor Noah Reid, and Letterkenny's Clark Backo.

Yaga was the first major project Williams took on after Heated Rivalry began to ripple out beyond Canadian borders. That ice‑slick love story, aired domestically on Crave, follows Shane and Ilya, played by Williams and Connor Storrie, as they navigate a relationship that begins with clenched fists and thudding body checks and ends up somewhere far more intimate. The series is already renewed, with season two scheduled for spring 2027, a sign that whatever happens with Apparatus, Hudson Williams will not be vanishing from screens any time soon.

On O'Brien's side, Apparatus adds to a run of recent work that has taken him away from the teen‑hero image fixed in place by Teen Wolf and The Maze Runner. The actor appeared in the 2025 features Anniversary and Twinless, then turned up in Send Help as the toxic new boss of his late father's company, eventually stranded on a deserted island with a co‑worker he cannot stand, played by Rachel McAdams. That willingness to lean into flawed, sometimes unlikable men may mesh neatly with JP, the 'entrepreneur' whose sales pitch to Tyler mutates into something much darker.

There are, inevitably, gaps in what can be said with certainty at this stage. No script pages have been made public, no footage has been shot, and there are no on‑record comments yet from Hudson Williams, Dylan O'Brien, or Banzhaf about how far the film will push its violence or intimacy. Until those arrive, fans mining the logline for clues will mostly be projecting their own hopes onto two actors whose online fandoms are already primed to collide.