Could Ted Lasso be returning for a fourth season? That's what industry chatter seems to suggest, as three stars of the beloved Apple TV+ series have reportedly tentatively signed on.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Television, which produced the series, have picked up options on Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Jeremy Swift; who portrayed the characters of Rebecca Walton, Roy Kent, and Leslie Higgins, respectively. All three actors had contracts under Equity, a UK-based acting union.
Assuming those options are secured, the studio would then have to create new deals for the other principal cast members, co-creators, and executive producers, including Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, and Juno Temple, who are all represented by SAG-AFTRA.
Season 3 of Ted Lasso wrapped on May 31, 2023. However, while the series never confirmed that it would be the final season, it very much felt like a series finale; giving all of the main characters an epilogue of sorts. The titular character played by Sudeikis moves back to Kansas where he finally reunited with his wife and son; Coach Beard marries his pregnant girlfriend Jane at Stonehenge; Roy becomes the new manager of Richmond; and Rebecca and Keeley decide to join forces to sponsor a Richmond women's team.
Though, the third season also took a dip in the critical ratings, receiving just an 81 percent critic's score on Rotten Tomatoes; compared 92 percent and 98 percent for seasons 1 and 2.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, co-creator Bill Lawrence expressed hopes for a fourth season, explaining that the team was waiting on Sudekis to make a decision.
"Even without talking to each other, and every actor, actress, writer, producer on that show—and [we didn’t get] together and decide this was the message—we all loved the experience," Lawrence recalled. "As fans, we’d all kill if it was going again, but everybody would say the same thing, which is: Whatever Jason feels like doing, and whatever his decision is, we’re all down with it."
"Not only is he the star, he’s the head writer, and he’s also the dude whose life just has to be completely overhauled and moved to a foreign country with young children," he continued. "It’s a big deal. So, as a fan, if someone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna happen again,’ I’ll go nuts. As a partner, I’m down for whatever he wants to do."
After its first season premiered in 2020, Ted Lasso was nominated for a record 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, becoming the most nominated first-season comedy in Emmy history. All told, over the course of three seasons, the series took home an impressive 11 Emmy wins out of 61 nominations.
