Will There Be a ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4?

We all need more Ted Lasso in our lives. For two seasons now, Ted and the rest of the Richmond Greyhounds have graced us with their warm, funny, tenderhearted adventures, and a third season is on the way. But what about a fourth season? How long is Ted Lasso planned to continue? Does the fact that the series has now won 11 Emmy Awards change things at all? If you’re longing for more Ted, here’s what you need to know!

The story thus far

Ted Lasso focuses on the titular American football coach, played by Jason Sudeikis, who’s tapped to coach a London soccer team. Little does he know, though, that the team’s owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is secretly setting him up to fail so she can get revenge on her ex-husband by running his team into the ground. At first, the entire team and all their fans think that Ted is a joke, but Ted’s relentless kindness and optimism gradually win everyone over.

Season 1 focuses on Ted’s arrival in London and Rebecca’s schemes to sabotage his coaching efforts. Along the way, Ted goes up against the arrogant wunderkind Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) and the probing journalist Trent Crimm (James Lance), while mentoring the shy kit man Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed). While Ted is finding his place as the team’s manager, the team itself faces relegation from the Premiere League to the Championship League.

Season 2 focuses much more on the skeletons in the Greyhounds’ closets. Ted in particular is forced to confront his painful past, eventually revealing that his father killed himself when Ted was 16. Nate goes through one of the most dramatic character arcs of the whole show when he gets addicted to the fame of coaching, but then grows paranoid about his public image and eventually takes it out on Ted before defecting to West Ham United.

While we don’t know the details of Season 3 yet, we do know that the writers are setting up some pretty dramatic confrontations. As head coach of West Ham, Nate will likely be going up against Ted—which will be especially ugly since, before leaving Richmond, Nate told Ted off and threw all his mentorship back in his face. Ted will also likely try to make good on his promise to Rebecca, way back in season 1, to “win the whole fucking thing.”

Does Season 2’s ending feel kind of like the second act of a 3 act story? There’s a reason for that.

What the writers and actors have said about a possible season 4

Jason Sudeikis and others involved in the series have been pretty clear for a while now that they’ve always imagined Ted Lasso as a 3-season show. However, they’ve also repeatedly left open the possibility of extending it.

In a June 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sudeikis said that “the story that’s being told – that three-season arc – is one that I see, know, and understood. I’m glad that [Apple is] willing to pay for those three seasons. As far as what happens after that, who knows? I don’t know.”

In the same article, Brendan Hunt, who plays Ted’s assistant Coach Beard, echoed the sentiment, saying, “I think we’ve always meant it to be three seasons. I think it would be pretty cool if, in the face of how much everyone likes this show, that we stick to our guns and really just do three seasons.”

According to Variety, Brett Goldstein, who plays player-turned-coach Roy Kent, was clear about the series stopping at 3. “We are writing it like that,” he said. “It was planned as three. Spoiler alert — everyone dies.”

However, writer and producer Bill Lawrence first seeded the possibility of a fourth season back in October 2021. “When we first pitched this particular story, we said this series was only going to be three seasons,” he told Deadline. “And I would probably stay clean and say that even if Ted Lasso goes on, the story the writing staff has been telling had a beginning, middle, and end for the first three seasons. And then it might veer off from that.”

Most recently, after taking home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Sudeikis seemed more open to the idea of a season 4 when he spoke to Deadline:

I don’t know, it’s up to more factors than myself … The response has been overwhelming. We have a tremendous group of writers, actors, people in production and post-production, all of those thrown in the jambalaya of possibility. I couldn’t say yes or no. I know this part of the show is what it’s supposed to be. I apologize for not giving you a direct answer because that’s more helpful for headlines. If I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.

But should there be a season 4?

Of course, more content doesn’t always necessarily equal better content. Sometimes, letting showrunners stick to their original vision for a series allows them to tell a tightly crafted and satisfying story. Convincing them to extend it, on the other hand, can lead to bloated, aimless storytelling.

On the other hand, exploring what characters get up to after their initial storylines wrap up can lead a show in new and interesting directions. We’ll have to wait and see what the Ted Lasso crew decides to do.

In the meantime, Season 3 is currently filming, so we’ll get more Emmy-winning Ted content before long!

(image: Apple TV Plus)

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