The ball is completely in Jason Sudeikis‘ court when it comes to the future of Ted Lasso.
Creator Bill Lawrence, who worked with Sudeikis on bringing the show to life at Apple TV+, was asked about plans for a fourth season. He shared that the future of the series rests entirely with its lead actor.
“Whatever Jason feels like doing and whatever his decision is, we’re all down with it,” Lawrence, 55, told Collider.
After addressing how “groupthink” caused fans to think more episodes were in the works when nothing officially was announced, Lawrence pointed out that Sudeikis, 48, had a lot of factors to consider before returning to Ted Lasso.
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“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,” Lawrence said about Sudeikis, who shares son Otis, 10, and daughter, Daisy, 7, with ex Olivia Wilde. “It’s a big deal.”
Viewers, however, shouldn’t give up hope when it comes to their favorite show. “If someone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna happen again,’ I’ll go nuts,” Lawrence concluded. “As a partner, I’m down for whatever he wants to do.”
Ted Lasso premiered in August 2020, with Sudeikis playing the titular American football coach who moves across the pond to run a soccer team. After the show became a massive hit, questions surfaced about extending Ted Lasso beyond the originally planned three-season arc.
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Sudeikis has insisted that the season 3 finale — which aired in May 2023 — was meant to serve as a conclusion.
“This story is done,” he explained on the “Fly on the Wall” podcast in May 2023. “It sounds like such a political answer, but it’s the truth. We only conceived these three [seasons], then this thing became this big old thing.”
Sudeikis mentioned that the Ted Lasso team has “thought about” potential spinoffs after seeing the demand for more.
“Whether it’s [a book], whether it’s doing podcasts about the episodes to offer those audio commentaries … just to talk through things and the themes,” he shared. “And also it would explain the show in a much more cerebral way than I ever would have been able to explain it to anybody. Yeah, there’s opportunities, I think, for spinoffs.”
The actor pitched the idea of several characters from the universe getting their own show.
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“I think that we’ve set the table for all sorts of folks … to get to watch the further telling of these stories,” he told Deadline in March 2023. “I can’t help but take the question as flattery for what all of us that were working on the show has tried to do. It’s really kind of folks to even consider that because you never know what’s gonna happen when you make things. The fact that people want more, even if it’s a different avenue is lovely.”
His costar Hannah Waddingham, meanwhile, recently poked fun at the assumption that Sudeikis opted to end the show.
“I don’t know what is wrong with the man. It’s ridiculous. Even the other night I was like, ‘Dude.’ Honestly I was because why would you take the biggest hug away?” she quipped to Entertainment Tonight in January 2024. “Because he is smart he can subvert the conversation and distract. Before you know it, you are talking about something else. Who knows. But the fact that it is so beloved, I don’t think any of us will get over the love the show has had.”
There has been no official announcement from Apple TV+ about Ted Lasso‘s future. All episodes are currently streaming.
