Netflix has finally put faces to the couple at the center of one of BookTok’s biggest romance adaptations.
Daisy Jelley and Connor Simos have been cast as Anastasia “Stassie” Allen and Nate Hawkins in Netflix’s upcoming series adaptation of Hannah Grace’s bestselling novel Icebreaker. Variety first reported the casting exclusively, with Netflix subsequently confirming the pair as the show’s leads.
For readers who have spent months wondering who could play the figure skater and hockey captain, the search is officially over.
Daisy Jelley will play Anastasia ‘Stassie’ Allen
Jelley takes on Stassie, a fiercely competitive figure skater pursuing an Olympic dream.
Netflix’s series describes her as a transfer student whose carefully controlled plans are disrupted when an accident forces the figure-skating and hockey teams to share the same rink. That puts her directly in the path of Nate Hawkins, the university’s hockey star who has his own goal of reaching the NHL.
Jelley is already familiar to Netflix audiences through Geek Girl. She has also appeared in How to Have Sex and will star in another upcoming Netflix series, Poser.
That gives Netflix a relatively recognizable young actor for one half of the couple.
The other half is a much bigger introduction.
Connor Simos is Netflix’s Nate Hawkins
Connor Simos has landed the role of Nate Hawkins, effectively making Icebreaker his major television breakthrough.
Simos is expected to appear in the upcoming thriller Subversion alongside Chris Hemsworth and Lily James, but Icebreaker will mark his first credited television role.
Casting a relatively unknown actor as Nate is an interesting choice considering just how closely readers already identify with Grace’s character.
Nate is the captain of the Maple Hills hockey team, but the appeal of the novel comes from him being considerably more emotionally thoughtful than the stereotypical arrogant college athlete the premise initially suggests.
Creator Jade Halley Bartlett highlighted exactly that quality while discussing the adaptation, describing Stassie and Nate as “good, deeply compassionate people.”
Their relationship begins after the two teams are forced onto the same ice, turning irritation and competition into an attraction neither of them planned for.
Or, as Netflix’s official logline puts it, discipline eventually gives way to obsession.
Icebreaker is much bigger than one viral BookTok novel
Netflix is not adapting an obscure romance that happened to trend online.
Published in 2022, Icebreaker became the first book in Grace’s interconnected Maple Hills series and spent 70 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. It has sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide, according to Variety’s reporting.
That success eventually expanded into subsequent Maple Hills novels following different couples within the same fictional world.
It also means Netflix has potential beyond a single season if Icebreaker connects with viewers. Nothing has been announced about adapting the later books yet, but the source material already provides an established group of characters and relationships around Stassie and Nate.
The project comes from creator Jade Halley Bartlett, with Amanda Lasher serving as showrunner. Bartlett and Lasher are also writers and executive producers. Hannah Grace is involved as an executive producer, alongside Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre through Unwell Productions.
Now comes the harder part: building Maple Hills
Stassie and Nate may be the two names readers cared most about, but they are only the beginning of the casting challenge.
Much of Icebreaker depends on the wider Maple Hills group—the hockey team, Stassie’s skating relationships and the friendships surrounding the central romance. Netflix has not yet revealed who will fill those supporting roles.
It has also not announced a premiere date.
With Jelley and Simos now officially attached, however, Icebreaker has moved from being another bestselling romance “in development” to something much easier for fans to imagine on screen.
Netflix has its Stassie.
It has its Nate.
Now it needs to make Maple Hills feel like the world millions of readers already have in their heads.
