Ted Lasso’s third season ended in May 2023. I loved the first two seasons but I absolutely loathed the third season. It felt like Jason Sudeikis’s personal situation affected every part of the show, from the writing to the decisions about all of the characters to the way everything “wrapped up.” It was no secret that Jason was basically the only one who wanted the show to end, the rest of the actors and writers would have loved to keep going. There were rumors about a spinoff starring Hannah Waddingham’s Rebecca and there were other rumors that AppleTV+ basically went to Jason and said “name your price, we want more Lasso.” Well, now that everyone is more than a year removed from the Lasso finale, they’re deciding to do a “fourth season.” Hmm.

Ted Lasso fans, this is not a drill. 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), that is believed to include Juno Temple (Keeley Jones). We hear one of the Ted Lasso OGs, Phil Dunster (Jamie Tart), 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.

It is unclear which other stars may be approached about Season 4; the cast have all said repeatedly that they would be happy to reprise their roles if an opportunity arises. Many would likely pop in for guest appearances.

Getting the cast back paves the way toward a Season 4 greenlight, contingent on budget approval and scheduling as actors whose options have lapsed may have joined other series that have them in first position, sources said.

Starting the process for a Season 4 greenlight indicates that the main Ted Lasso driving force on and off-screen, Sudeikis, is on board for a new installment as the studio would not have proceeded without his consent. The fate of Ted Lasso has always hinged on Sudeikis, who’d originated the character in NBC Sports videos. While being open that they would love to extend Ted Lasso, one of the biggest and most acclaimed comedies of the past decade, Apple and Warner Bros. executives have made it clear that it would be up to Sudeikis whether the show would continue.

[From Deadline]

In the dreamlike final sequence where we saw what happens to the characters, it felt like they were setting up a post-Ted Lasso series in Richmond. That was what most of the conversations were about last year, all of the potential spinoffs now that the Ted character is back in Kansas. I wonder how they’ll explain Lasso’s potential return to Richmond? Suddenly his kid doesn’t need him anymore? His ex-wife is still banging their marriage counselor? Rebecca and Roy can’t manage the football club without him and they beg him to return? Or will Ted see the light and come to the conclusion that, actually, Richmond is his home and he needs to go home? This is why I would tune in, to see how they resolve Ted’s return to Richmond and what “happened” to everyone in the two years Ted was back in Kansas. I also wonder what happened with Sudeikis – he was so burned out on Lasso and he was phoning in his performance in the third season. Maybe he just needed a real break and now he’s ready to come back.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid, AppleTV+.