'Ted Lasso' fans can believe it: The show is back for a Season 4, with Ted coaching women
Believe it, AFC Richmond fans. The squad is getting ready for another season of soccer mayhem and solid laughs.
That's right, "Ted Lasso" is coming back for a fourth season, after intense speculation (and growing doubts) that the multi-Emmy-winning series would return. But the team Ted will be coaching will look a bit different: It will be a women's soccer team, presumably also fielded by the head office at AFC Richmond, but mum's the word.
On the most recent edition of Jason and Travis Kelce's podcast, "New Heights," series star and executive producer Jason Sudeikis was pressed by the Kelces about the future of the show. He batted away most of their queries, but did offer that nugget.
“That’s the official word,” Sudeikis said. “Ted’s coaching a women’s team. There. That’s it.”
The announcement of the new season came Friday from Apple TV+, and predictably included scant details about the one-season renewal, although it's expected that 10 new episodes will air in 2026.
Negotiations are still underway with many of the actors in the show, which for its first three seaons focused on a Cinderella-soccer team in the British Premier League and its management. One favorite definitely will not suit up - Phil Dunster, who played talented yet cantankerous pretty-boy goal scorer, Jamie Tartt. And Toheeb Jimoh, who plays Sam Obisanya, won't be back: He joined the Nigerian national team in the presumptive May 2023 series finale and HBO announced Thursday he will join the Season 4 cast of "Industry."
In a statement from Apple, Sudeikis, who plays the show's eponymous American-style football coach who heads to England to coach a flailing soccer team, said that "as we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap.' In season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to leap before they look, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be.”
The first season of the show, which premiered in 2020 and proved a salve for many viewers during the pandemic, also featured 10 episodes, and the following two had 12.
Among those likely returning in roles both in front of and behind the camera are Sudeikis pal Brendan Hunt (Coach Willis Beard), who also serves as a producer on "Ted Lasso," and Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent ), writer and executive producer (and most recently a featured player on "Shrinking," which he co-created with Jason Segel and Bill Lawrence.)
Since its debut five years ago, "Ted Lasso" has been nominated for 61 Emmys and won 13, including outstanding comedy series in 2021 and 2022.
Contributing: Gary Levin