Paul Wesley Latest To Join Netflix’s ‘Icebreaker’

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Wesley, of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and The Vampire Diaries, is the newest addition to the cast of Netflix‘s college romance drama series Icebreaker, based on the #1 New York Times bestseller by Hannah Grace.

Wesley will play Coach Neil Faulkner. He joins the previously announced Daisy Jelley, Connor Simos, Gabriel Tierney, Auli’i Cravalho, Peter Berry, Chaneil Kular, Devin Craig and Aidan Shaw, with production now underway in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Here’s the logline for Icebreaker: She’s the transfer gunning for Olympic gold. He’s the campus star chasing the NHL. But when an accident forces their teams to share one rink, Anastasia Allen (Jelley) and Nate Hawkins (Simos) collide—and discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other.

The lead-off title of Grace’s Maple Hill series, Icebreaker has spent 70 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Originally published in November 2022 with a wide release in 2023, the novel has sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide, with translations in 24 languages and distribution across 34 territories.

Jade Halley Bartlett (Road House, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) is the show’s creator. Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl, The Bold Type), meanwhile, is showrunner and writer. She exec produces alongside Bartlett, author Grace and the trio of Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre for Unwell Productions.

Best known for his roles as Stefan Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries and James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is heading into its fifth and final season on Paramount+, Wesley will also be seen coming up in the third season of Apple’s The Buccanneers, as well as You Deserve to Know, a limited mystery-thriller series from Hulu, where he stars opposite Nina Dobrev. He is repped by Verve, Anonymous Content and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.