Somehow, 'Ted Lasso' Is About To Return

By Brian Richards | TV | August 25, 2024 |

By Brian Richards | TV | August 25, 2024 |

Yesterday saw the shocking announcement that the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, which ended its three-season run last May, is very likely to return for a fourth season, as three of the show’s main actors have begun contract talks with Warner Bros. Television. There had been much discussion and speculation during the show’s third season as to whether it really would be the show’s last, and if it would ever return with additional episodes, or lead to the creation of a spinoff. Those speculations ended after the show’s sets were dismantled, and interviews from cast members made it seem highly unlikely that more Ted Lasso was in the future. Hence why this news was so incredibly shocking once it became public.

From Deadline Hollywood, who were exclusive in breaking the news:

In a major step toward the long-awaited fourth season of Apple TV+’s hugely popular soccer comedy, the series’ studio Warner Bros. Television has picked up the options on the three original cast members who had been contracted under the aegis of the UK acting union Equity, sources tell Deadline. They are Hannah Waddingham, who plays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Walton, Brett Goldstein, who plays hardman Roy Kent, and Jeremy Swift, who plays Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins.

After securing the trio, the studio is expected to start reaching out to Ted Lasso cast members with SAG-AFTRA contracts whose options had expired, so they will need to make new deals, we hear. In addition to co-creators/executive producers Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) and Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard), the list is believed to include Juno Temple (Keeley Jones). We hear one of the Ted Lasso OGs, Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt), has not been picked up, presumably due to a conflict with another series; he is on both Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour and Apple’s Surface.

Fans on social media are dancing with joy like Ted Lasso himself about news of the show coming back. Some are not nearly as happy and are instead apprehensive about what to expect from the show upon its return. (Kaleena’s response? “I’m already tired.”)

The third, and what was originally assumed to be the final, season of Ted Lasso was divisive among both critics and viewers, and the finale did little to change those feelings, for reasons I discussed when I wrote about the Ted Lasso finale last year: Episodes were too long, uneven, and unfocused; characters like Zava, Shandy, and Jack being introduced, only for them to add very little to the show; important story developments kept happening offscreen and between episodes; Nate’s entire storyline/redemption arc/love story with Jade, whose existence made me wonder if she was a racist, an asshole, or both; Roy and Keeley breaking up, and for reasons that made no sense; Jamie suddenly deciding that he now wants to be with Keeley again, and giving the show a love triangle/potential throuple that it didn’t need; the happiest endings relationship-wise going to Nate and Coach Beard; the possibility of Ted attempting to patch things up with Michelle, despite the fact that she not only ended their marriage but went on to enter into a relationship with their marriage counselor, which is an ethics violation (and quite simply, just a very f-cked-up decision) that neither Ted nor the show itself ever treated with the gravity it deserved; Rebecca pouring her heart out to Ted to convince him to stay, only to get nothing from him in return; and the most infuriating thing about Season 3 (according to shippers and fierce believers in Rom-Communism who watched the show): no Happily Ever After for Ted and Rebecca, and instead of seeing their friendship become a romance, we saw Ted leave her behind to go back to Kansas, and Rebecca beginning a relationship with a previously introduced and unnamed Dutch pilot in the closing minutes of the finale.

Oh, and AFC Richmond didn’t even win the championship! The team lost offscreen before Ted went back home, despite the Season 3 premiere ending with Ted being reminded by his son that he went to England to help Richmond “win the whole thing,” and that he should at least try doing that, even if Ted believes that winning isn’t everything. (Which is something that even Coach Beard expressed his frustration about back in Season 1.)

As someone who loved the first two seasons of Ted Lasso, and who liked some parts of its third season while admitting that it was a severe drop in quality, I too want to be happy and excited about the news that Ted Lasso is coming back. I want to be curious, not judgmental, about what we’ll be getting from this fourth season, and if any or all of it will be what was hinted at in the Season 3 finale. (Richmond having a women’s football team? Roy Kent working through his issues, thanks to therapy sessions with Dr. Sharon? Keeley, Roy, and Jamie as an actual throuple, if Phil Dunster is able to return? Will it even be called Ted Lasso, or instead change its name to The Richmond Way, like Ted himself said when leaving his note in Trent Crimm’s manuscript of The Lasso Way that it’s not all about him?)

But I’m also willing to admit that if Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt will be the showrunners/head writers for Ted Lasso when it returns, my expectations for this fourth season will be severely f-cking lowered. I wasn’t entirely happy with what they gave us when they were calling the shots for Season 3 (and I remain eternally grateful for the Twitter mutuals who pointed me toward the Ted Lasso section of Archive of Our Own), and the thought of them calling the shots once again honestly fills me with dread. I know that he’s been busy as showrunner for Shrinking and Bad Monkey, but if Apple TV+ and Warner Bros. Television could just please have a Brink’s truck delivered to Bill Lawrence’s house so that he can be the one steering the ship for this upcoming season of Ted Lasso, and restore it to the greatness it delivered during those first two seasons when he was in charge? It would be greatly appreciated, enough that I too would dance with joy like Ted Lasso if it were to become a reality.

P.S.: Give Alfonso Ribeiro a call, and ask him to make an appearance or two. You already sung his well-deserved praises before, and it’s not like Ribeiro is going to be busy working on set with Tyler Perry anytime soon.