America’s Favorite Soccer Coach Is Back With a New Gig As ‘Ted Lasso’ Returns

During the montage that ended what was widely thought to be the series finale of Ted Lasso, the writers worked in a “breadcrumb” or two, in the words of co-creator Brendan Hunt. The most notable: Keeley (Juno Temple) presenting a proposal for an AFC Richmond women’s team.

After the show wrapped and all the editing and PR work was done, the writers took a while to decompress and then decided that maybe there were more stories to tell. They got together at a resort in Ojai, Calif., for two days to spitball ideas and play a little golf. (Not Hunt, though: “Didn’t much care about that, but I sure like riding the golf carts,” he says.)

By the end of the retreat, Hunt (who also plays Coach Beard in the show) says it was clear that “there’s something here. The soil remains fertile.”

Among the ideas they kicked the tires on for Season 4—which premieres on Apple TV on Aug. 5—was relocating the setting to Kansas City, where Ted (Jason Sudeikis) had moved in the finale after resigning as Richmond’s coach. “In the end, we felt like Richmond and London are too much a part of the DNA to get away from that,” says Hunt.

So they settled on the idea of focusing on the formation of a women’s team, coached by Lasso. That the show would lean into women’s sports isn’t a surprise. Sudeikis has long been a presence at women’s pro and college basketball games, and much of the cast and crew got caught up in the European Women’s Championship, with England winning while the show was shooting in that country in 2022.

And Ted Lasso has always featured powerful, smartly written female characters, which Hunt ascribes to two things: a writers’ room that’s nearly half female and the upbringing of the show’s four creators (Sudeikis, Hunt, Joe Kelly and Bill Lawrence). “None of us have a brother,” says Hunt. “Me and Joe and Jason all only have sisters, and Bill is an only child. So we’ve all basically grown up with strong women around. It was not like some kind of leap.”

Introducing a new team meant finding a whole bunch of new actors (though many of the regulars from the first three seasons are back). One was Tanya Reynolds, who plays one of Ted’s assistant coaches. Reynolds had little soccer knowledge (aside from being caught up in the Lionesses’ Euro campaign) and hadn’t even seen the show when she auditioned. When she was cast, she binged it and was hooked. “Watching the first three seasons in such quick succession, I really felt like I just wanted to be a part of that world,” says Reynolds. “I just loved the world of it all.”

Not having a soccer background wasn’t the most imposing thing for Reynolds. That would be stepping into the cast of a show that won 13 Emmys—which turned out to be something of a team-building exercise. Says Reynolds, “We were all in the same boat, we were all the new kids on the block, and so we all felt like we were in it together and we really bonded.

“The vibe I got from watching it was that it would be a really fun job to work on.” And it was. “Every day I was laughing so much that I felt sick,” she says.

So much change can be imposing, especially for a show that relies so heavily on the actors’ chemistry. But, says Hunt, “Once everything, you know, gets in order over the course of the first couple episodes, it should just feel like, We’re back.”

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