Inside ‘Off Campus’, Prime’s hockey-romance TV hit

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, among other things, the players’ skates come off. It’s a winning formula that just spawned a new TV sensation.

Released on May 13th Off campus is Prime Video’s entry into the explosively popular genre. Based on the 2015 book The agreementfrom 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 romantic tropes such as fake dating plots, twists between enemies and lovers, secret relationships and more. The series also taps into the current craze for new adult stories — that is, focusing on characters in that stage of life between teenhood and full-fledged adulthood — many of which are set specifically in the pressure-cooker environment that colleges and universities naturally provide for romance to 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 is not a phase, but a genre with a lot to say about it.

“I immediately became hooked on the characters,” says Levy. “I was excited about telling a love story with unexpected depth. As a TV writer, that’s where my heart sings, and that’s where I really got excited to dive deeper into it.”

The agreement is the first book in an interconnected universe of 13 books written by Kennedy. Season one of Off campus Centered on 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 teacher and Hannah needs a boyfriend to attract the interest of her punk rocker crush, Justin (Josh Heuston). “Ella is magnetic,” says Kennedy. “When you see her, you feel this joy. She’s so talented and she brought Hannah’s dedication to the music. And then Belmont is just so charming. He has Garrett’s charisma and presence. When you see him, you know this man is going to protect her.”

Most people might assume this Off campus is just a copycat trying to drive Heated rivalry‘s coattails. Yes, they’re both about hockey players in love, complete with eight episodes of TV-MA sex. But Levy believes Off campusThe unique perspective lies in the university setting, which was not a gimmick designed to create distance between the two projects.

“We were well on our way before Heated rivalry even sold to HBO Max,” notes Levy. “It was very exciting to see another hockey romance book on the air. But it didn’t feel so much like they were treading the same waters. Our show is so much about the college friendships in the community.

As Kennedy explains, “In college you’re dealing with new sexual experiences, you’re leaving home for the first time, and you’re developing new friendships. That stage of life is an important time in people’s lives. Everything feels more intense and exciting. And I think that really resonates with people.”

Off campus fits the bill and delivers sex-heavy episodes with a TV-MA rating. But the show doesn’t just use sex for the sake of a higher rating. Part of Hannah’s storyline revolves around a sexual assault in high school, which affects the way she approaches everything from drinking in public to casual sex. Levy says Rolling stone that even though she refused to make a version of the show that was PG-13, Hannah’s story and emotional journey made her incredibly picky about which sex scenes made it into the final cut.

“I think it’s important that we tap into the sex positivity of the books because it’s so beautiful, and I think it’s so important culturally,” says Levy. “But at no point do I want to put real people in front of the camera to do these sex scenes if the scenes aren’t moving the story forward or furthering the character arcs. We spent a lot of time with our intimacy coordinator about that and making sure everyone is on the same page: the cast, all the actors, the director and myself, before a single frame is 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 ensured that the plot-driving action maintained the integrity of both the story and the game. The team also focused on hiring actors instead of skaters, and 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 finalized, 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 said.

Since the entire 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 starting filming. And while she refuses to reveal who’s playing the lead role, she’s eager to delve deeper into the world of Briar University.

“We’re really excited about the favorite moments we’ll discover in season two,” she says. “But we want the fans to discover something.”