Hockey is finally having its moment in pop culture following the success of Heated Rivalry, the 2026 Olympics, the rise of the PWHL, and the current NHL Stanley Cup brackets. So Prime Video's Off Campus is coming at the right time: premiering on May 13, the 10-part series is based on Elle Kennedy's 2015 hockey romance book The Deal and follows the lives of college students Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), Hannah Wells (Ella Bright), John Logan (Antonio Cipriani), Dean DiLaurentis (Stephen Kalyn), Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla), and John Tucker (Jalen Thomas Brooks).
The book series focuses individually on each of the four hockey players and their respective love interests, yet although the TV show puts Garrett and Hannah front and center in season one, showrunner Louisa Levy cleverly weaves in the goings-on of the others, making it a true ensemble in ways that may surprise viewers.
Cast chemistry
The close connections between these characters on-screen meant that casting was key; Hannah and Garrett need a spark that is tempered by a wary curiosity, while Allie's friendship with Hannah requires two actresses who display vulnerability in one scene but can believably be partying and laughing in the next. Meanwhile Graham, the captain of Briar U's hockey team, is best friends with Logan, but the pair come from wildly different backgrounds and often struggle to understand each other.
Luckily for all, "the chemistry was insane," Ella tells HELLO!
"We had different actors all up for Allie, Garrett, Logan, Tucker, Dean, and Justin, and I met everybody," she says. "What was so cool about it, was you were reading with so many people and different actors and that felt really great, but you could really feel the energy shift when it was the people who ended up getting cast."
© PrimeFor Ella, 19, it was important that she felt comfortable with her closest co-star Belmont; The Deal is an open-door romance book with detailed sex scenes, and Prime Video assured fans that the TV series would be as smutty as the books.
"With Belmont specifically, it definitely felt different than others [for me] and it felt really special," says Ella. "You can only hope and pray that the casting directors feel the same way, and luckily for us they did."
© Prime"We're so close as friends, so we just have so much fun laughing on set," she says, sharing that one of her favorite scenes to film comes at the end of episode four. "It was a really, really emotional moment to film for me, and also really reminded me of 10 Things I Hate About You… there's a lot of romance references!"
Allie and Dean's history
Allie and Dean's story takes center stage in the third book, The Score, but season one of Off Campus begins the process of introducing the audience to this unlikely couple, exploring how and why the pair may be drawn to each other.
"Reading the books before gave me a lot of insight on what was to come for Allie, and so getting to see that come to light earlier than I expected was really exciting," says Mika.
© PrimeMika and co-star Stephen both worked on material in the same ways, she says, and it helped to keep "each other really grounded and comfortable and happy –there's a lot of trust there."
Music as vulnerability
Hannah is a classical composer who finds herself forced to compete in the school's pop showcase to win a scholarship and teams up with her crush, Justin Kohl (Josh Heuston), to compose the music and lyrics for an original piece. But despite singing being an integral part of both Hannah and Justin's skill set, neither Ella nor Josh had any musical experience.
© PrimeElla learned both the guitar and piano from scratch for this role, admitting that she was "insecure with the ability" she had going into the project. "But I had an amazing and supportive team around me for the music; they had so much patience with me. Just like [the boys] had to train to get to play hockey, I had to train for the music side for sure."
However, Josh came at the experience from a completely different point of view.
"I like taking risks, so I was like, 'I'll roll the dice, and if it comes out well, it comes out well. If it doesn't, then fair enough,'" he tells HELLO!
© Liane Hentscher/PrimeStill, he says that the role did teach him about the importance of vulnerability: "Music is such a vulnerable thing, it's just you and an instrument, or you and a microphone. It's a different thing to acting."
Girl time
Much has been made of the hockey training camp that Belmont, Jalen, Antonio, and Stephen attended in the weeks before production, where they learned how to skate and play hockey, but also developed a friendship that resonates on camera.
But the friendship between Hannah and Allie is equally as important, and so Ella and Mika made sure they found the time to bond - with The Summer I Turned Pretty watch parties and tea: "Ella made me proper tea, with cream and sugar, and we were sitting in her apartment, and it was so cute," laughs Mika.
© Getty Images"I think that is what's so special about the show: these friendships are just as important and have equal weight to these characters' formative lives as the romantic ones," adds Ella, sharing that her favorite scene to shoot was also an emotional one.
"For Mika and me, I think a really special one will always be midway through eight, and it's where Hannah confides in Allie about her past," says Ella. "It was such an emotional moment to film. It was actually our chemistry routine, so it was a really special one to get a revisit, and hopefully we have done it with a lot of care and integrity."
"Any scene where Ella and I are just hanging out in our dorm together, being sisters, is my favorite," adds Mika. "She's my favorite person ever: the sweetest, easiest person to be with, and our relationship just made everything so easy. I felt like I was talking to my buddy."
Come for the smut…
And stay for the heart, says Ella.
© Prime"I think there are so many things and characters that people can find themselves in and relate to in the show," says Ella. "I think it's a lot of fun, and there's a lot more depth than maybe people are initially expecting. If you're coming for the smut, as I like to say, you'll get it, but you'll also get a lot of heart."
Season two hopes
It's unclear if season two will follow the timeline of the books and focus on Logan and his one-night-stand turned love interest Grace, or Allie and Dean, but we do know that Grace has been cast, with India Fowler joining the family as the freshman student.
Book four tells Tucker's story, but Jalen shares with HELLO! that season two will explore Tucker becoming the "gentle giant" we know and love.
© Prime"Tucker is the youngest, and so he's really focused on hockey in the first season and getting into his position with the boys. But when season two comes along, you're going to see a lot of Tucker becoming this gentle giant that everybody knows him to be from the books," says Jalen. "One thing about Tucker being younger now is that it's really nice that you're going to see what type of young man he becomes."
Cast dinners
One of the first things the cast did as a group was a potluck dinner at Antonio's house, where Jalen cooked his famous brown sugar bourbon rib eye steak with thinly sliced top sirloin, asparagus, and sweet potatoes.
This cast became a family, which made their jobs "easier," Jalen says.
"Especially on a show like this, where it's steamy and romantic, [being a family] makes things that may make you nervous as an actor seem way easier and more nonchalant. It's your dream to be able to click with your castmates, and this is a dream come true."
© PrimeBlooper reels?
Jalen shares that his favorite scene to shoot never made it to the final cut, but jokes "bloopers are going to come out".
As for the scene? "It was between me, Stephen, and Kobhe Clarke; a fruit scene. When Dean tells Tucker, 'that's the part where you should run,' I get up, and I go to the back of the room, and they pin me in the corner, practically, and I slide underneath Kobhe's legs, then he grabs me and holds me up from my legs. It was a whole scene, it was so good, but it was too long."
