by Gill Pringle in LA
After what felt like a perfect Season 3 ending, Ted Lasso is back for a fourth outing.
When S3 wrapped in 2023, many fans believed it was the end of the journey. Ted had returned to Kansas to be closer to his son, AFC Richmond had become one of England’s top clubs, and most of the major characters had found satisfying resolutions.
The decision to return once more was not taken lightly. “We had a writers’ retreat before anything was decided, just to kick the tires and see if this enthusiasm that I was feeling bubbling inside me was rippling out into other areas,” recalls Sudeikis talking about the collective enthusiasm shared between himself and co-creator Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard) together with writer Joe Kelly and the rest of the writers’ room.
“And you’ve still got to deal with a healthy amount of self doubt or concern of going back to the well and ask why? And answering those questions for me internally, but then once a ‘yes’ is said, well then, you just don’t want to upset anybody, so off we went,” he smiles.
But Sudeikis is under no illusion that die-hard Ted Lasso fans will automatically embrace the new fourth season – given how Ted is now coaching Richmond’s fledgling women’s football team.
And while the core cast remains – Hannah Waddingham’s AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton; Brett Goldstein’s gruff but secretly tender Roy Kent; Jeremy Swift’s lovable front office manager Leslie Higgins and Juno Temple’s ditzy marketing whizz Keeley Jones – it’s the women’s team that now vies for centre space in this new chapter.
“I think it’s probably how most players would feel when they show up at a club that has a tremendous history, and it’s like: ‘Oh I can never be so and so’,” says Sudeikis musing about the show’s dazzling newcomers including Jude Mack, Abbie Hearn and Faye Marsay.
“And certainly, the show that I worked on for ten years, Saturday Night Live, is like a sports team – and people have disliked the new people for 49 years since the very first cast! They didn’t like Bill Murray after Chevy Chase left, and we forget about that. They didn’t like my generation after Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon left, and that just goes on, but you have to do it. The show must go on,” he muses.
“So, doing the old with the new is fun. We’ve always delighted in putting little touches and throughlines and little homages, and like I sort of call it – shopping from your own closet – and so we have plenty of that.
“Finding new in the old and yet finding familiarity in the new was a very joyful process. It kept you engaged at all times. It’s like that workout exercise where they make you stand on something unsteady and then lift weights so that your whole body and mind are activated. It felt like that at all times. It still feels like that. I still don’t know if I’m doing it right,” he says with the typical modesty we have come to associate with Ted.
But rest assured, the warmth and optimism that made Ted Lasso a global phenomenon still remains.
Rather than simply picking up where the previous season left off, Season 4 takes Ted into uncharted territory, while staying true to the themes that made audiences fall in love with it.
It’s a clever move. The world of women’s football has grown dramatically over the past few years, attracting bigger crowds, more media attention, and higher levels of competition than ever before.
Timing wise, the focus on women’s football makes perfect sense to the show’s two central female stars, Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple.
“I am so proud to be a part of this show at this moment in time,” enthuses Temple.
Waddingham agrees. “It’s very cleverly done because, if I think about it, we are all, as a society of women, brought up with the fact that men reign supreme, and there is a level of acceptance. You know, growing up in the ‘80s – I was 10 in 1984 – and there was just an acceptance that boys and men did this or that, and I think it’s so clever that you have Rebecca thinking she’s a feminist, but actually, not very much of her is, and she really has to question herself,” she says.
“And the fact that she’s called out by someone like Alice, I think, is absolute genius,” she says referring to the women’s team co-coach, Alice Chilton, portrayed by Tanya Reynolds [below].
“And the fact that she lets it in so early on in the season, I think, is going to make for fabulous energy between those two people. It’s almost like the old guard and the new guard, and that’s not to be negative to Rebecca, because there’s just the societal thing of a woman who is used to being below a man. So, it’s going to be really interesting watching those two characters play out,” says Waddingham.
If the actresses who portray the footballers had any hesitation about becoming a team, then they were offered plenty of bonding opportunities at football boot camp, in turn, leading to boozy karaoke nights.
Faye Marsay was one of the few actresses coming to the show with football experience. “I am by far a much better footballer than I am an actress,” she admits. “So, I had a lovely time playing football because I played when I was a kid, so I got to live out my childhood fantasy of playing in a women’s team that is semi-professional. But obviously, the acting’s daunting. I mean, I’m terrified every time I walk on the set. But the football just felt like 10-year-old Faye getting to run around and have fun,” says the actress who plays mum-of-two Lizzie.
They all agree that this is a zeitgeist moment for women’s football. “Especially in the UK and the US, female footballers are just having a real moment,” says Abbie Hearn who plays Gemma. “And they’re really being allowed to be celebrities and not be just a powerhouse in the sport, but in the world too. So, having the opportunity to portray that feels like a dream come true, and they’re all people that we have met and now look up to,” she adds.
Marsay believes their performances go beyond just acting, that there’s an important message too. “I think also what’s important is that we’re normalising the normal. Women do exist in sports, and they exist at the highest level just as men. So, we’re just normalising what’s always been the thing, but just needs a bit more exposure,” says the actress who hopes this new season might even increase ticket sales for women’s football.
“And I think using Ted Lasso as the platform to shine a light on the problems in women’s sport and the things that we need to do better, and also how much interest women’s sport has… I think this is the right platform to do it, and I think we do it in a subtle and graceful way. We’re not shoving anything down anyone’s throat, but we’re just exposing what women athletes are up against, whether that be motherhood and trying to be an athlete, or facilities, or equal pay. So, we kind of do it all,” says Marsay.
Jude Mack [above] agrees: “I think it’s a lot to do with us being allowed to be really aggressive and arrogant and messy and loud in this show. I think that is quite rare to see on screen. Also, we’re not being asked to be pretty in this show, which is quite refreshing in this context,” says the actress who plays “Boots”.
“It’s also about women being portrayed a lot of the time as arguing with each other and tearing each other down. And don’t we all have a horrible time in a room together?” adds Marsay. “When it’s the opposite of that, it’s holding each other up and championing each other.”
Going into Season 4, AFC Richmond’s motto, “Believe”, remains a strong sentiment.
“I’ve always had a strong belief in the people I love, the people I stand for, and a belief in myself. Whether it’s as a mum or a friend or a sister or a partner, I’m in it,” says Waddingham. “I’ve always believed in what I could give on camera or on stage anyway. So yeah, I was already in that Ted Lasso ethos.”
Ted Lasso Season 4 is streaming now.
