ไทย
English
中國人
During the closing montage of what many believed to be the series finale of Ted Lasso, the writers slipped in a "breadcrumb" or two, in the words of co-creator Brendan Hunt. The most significant: Keeley (Juno Temple) pitching a proposal for an AFC Richmond women's team.
After the show concluded and all the post-production and promotional work was complete, the writers took some time to recharge before deciding there might be more stories worth exploring. They gathered at a resort in Ojai, Calif., for two days to brainstorm ideas and squeeze in some golf. (Hunt was the exception: "Didn't really care for that, but I sure do love riding the golf carts," he says.)
By the time the retreat wrapped up, Hunt (who also portrays Coach Beard on the show) says it became evident that "there's something here. The soil remains fertile."
Enable functional cookies to see this feature.
Among the concepts they explored for Season 4—which debuts on Apple TV on Aug. 5—was shifting the setting to Kansas City, where Ted (Jason Sudeikis) had relocated in the finale after stepping down as Richmond's coach. "Ultimately, we felt that Richmond and London are too deeply embedded in the show's DNA to move away from them," says Hunt.
So they landed on the idea of centering the season around the creation of a women's team, with Lasso at the helm as coach. The show's embrace of women's sports comes as little surprise. Sudeikis has long been a familiar face at women's professional and college basketball games, and much of the cast and crew became swept up in the European Women's Championship, with England claiming victory while the show was filming in the country in 2022.
And Ted Lasso has consistently featured strong, thoughtfully written female characters, something Hunt attributes to two factors: a writers' room that's nearly half female and the backgrounds 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 grew up with only sisters, and Bill is an only child. So we've all essentially been surrounded by strong women our whole lives. It wasn't some kind of stretch."
Bringing in a new team meant casting a whole new wave of actors (though many familiar faces from the first three seasons return). Among them is Tanya Reynolds, who plays one of Ted's assistant coaches. Reynolds had minimal soccer knowledge (beyond being swept up in the Lionesses' Euro run) and hadn't even watched the show before auditioning. Once cast, she binged the entire series and was immediately captivated. "Watching the first three seasons in such rapid succession, I really felt like I just wanted to be part of that world," says Reynolds. "I just loved everything about it."
Her lack of a soccer background wasn't the most daunting aspect for Reynolds. That honor went to joining the cast of a show that had won 13 Emmys—which ultimately became something of a team-bonding experience. 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 impression I got from watching it was that it would be a genuinely fun set to work on." And it delivered. "Every single day I was laughing so hard I felt ill," she says.
So much change can feel overwhelming, particularly for a show that leans so heavily on its cast's chemistry. But, says Hunt, "Once everything, you know, falls into place over the course of the first couple of episodes, it should just feel like, We're back."