One Year Ago Hudson Williams Was Waiting Tables. Now He May Have Landed His Next Big Role.

This time last year, Hudson Williams was waiting tables at The Old Spaghetti Factory in New Westminster, British Columbia.

He was writing short films on weekends with friends from Langara College. Paying rent paycheck to paycheck in one of the most expensive cities in Canada. Twenty-four years old, completely unknown.

Then Heated Rivalry premiered on HBO Max on November 28, 2025.

Six episodes. A queer hockey romance that should not have done what it did. It became Crave’s most-watched original series in history. Viewership increased 400% from its first seven-day window. The fifth episode received a perfect 10 on IMDB — for a stretch, it tied with Breaking Bad’s “Ozymandias” as the only television episode to ever achieve that. Hudson Williams and his co-star Connor Storrie carried the Olympic torch in Italy. Williams opened Dsquared2’s runway at Milan Fashion Week. He signed with CAA.

All of it in a matter of months.

Now this.

DeuxMoi — the anonymous celebrity gossip account asked followers to start a rumor this week. Someone responded that Hudson Williams would be cast as the lead in Jennifer Lopez’s Netflix adaptation of Emily Henry’s “Happy Place”.

DeuxMoi’s response was not a denial. And there were receipts to back it up.

Jennifer Lopez has 246 million Instagram followers and follows 1,895 accounts. She follows @hudsonwilliamsofficial. She started following him around the same time she formally attached herself as producer to the “Happy Place” adaptation. Emily Henry — the author of the book — follows him too.

For those who haven’t read it: “Happy Place” is about two people, Harriet and Wyn, who broke up months ago but haven’t told their friend group. They return to their annual vacation together and spend a week pretending the relationship is still intact. The tension is interior. The story lives in the silences between two people who still love each other and won’t say it. It needs a lead who can do everything with a look.

Which is almost exactly what critics said about Hudson Williams in “Heated Rivalry”. Rachel Reid, whose novel the show adapted, said of Williams: “What that guy does with his face tells a whole story. It’s all in the acting — you can see everything that Shane is thinking and feeling.”

There is one thing the Emily Henry fandom already knows and is not happy about. “Happy Place” was originally announced as a series. In early 2026 it was quietly shifted to a film. Fans who spent two years hoping for a multi-episode adaptation that could honor the book’s pacing have been loud about it on TikTok and Instagram. If Hudson Williams is the lead, he is walking into a project with a built-in controversy before he is even confirmed.

Neither Netflix nor Lopez’s team has confirmed anything.

But Jennifer Lopez follows 1,895 people.

Hudson Williams is one of them.