Well, Ted Lasso season 3’s final episode certainly felt like a definitive series finale. While there were many moments I enjoyed (and some I decidedly didn’t), one would be hard-pressed to deny that while Coach Lasso’s time in Richmond may have come to a close, the story of AFC Richmond doesn’t have to. In fact, the finale seemed to plant several seeds for future narratives, one of which I found very interesting indeed.
Spoilers for the Ted Lasso season 3 finale ahead!
All season long, Keeley (Juno Temple) and Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) have been unfairly separated. Of course, there were scenes of the two of them together, but their friendship was a key element of previous Ted Lasso seasons, and I missed them this year. So when the finale gave me a glimpse of where their future was headed, I naturally latched on, and this article is now officially the start of a campaign to get Apple TV+ to greenlight its first Ted Lasso spinoff: a show centered on the creation of the AFC Richmond’s women’s team.
In recent years, women’s football has finally been given the attention it deserves. BBC.co.uk reported that the Women’s Euro 2022, which was hosted in the U.K., had record-breaking viewership numbers: a global audience of 365 million watched the tournament, with 50 million tuning in to watch the final match between England and Germany. At the time, UEFA stated that the audience had more than doubled since the last Euro tournament, which was held in 2017.
In the U.K., the Women’s Super League (the women’s equivalent of the Premiere League) was a driving force behind a massive uptick in viewership across women’s sports this year. FIFA claims that the National Women’s Soccer League in the U.S. is the most successful professional women’s league in American history. This year, between 20 July and 20 August, the FIFA Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand. There is truly no better time to write a story based on women’s football.
Now that Rebecca has realized just how much she cares about AFC Richmond and what it means to the community, and her partnership with Keeley is set in stone, why shouldn’t they go for it? Why shouldn’t Rebecca take all she’s learned during her time with Ted and pay it forward for a new generation, a new demographic? A show about the AFC Richmond women’s team could feature fun crossovers with the players we already know and love, while still providing a fresh perspective and introducing an exciting new group of characters to watch as they grow and become the best versions of themselves.
Come on, Apple! What are you waiting for?
(featured image: Apple TV+)
