With the announcement that Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Jeremy Swift have all had their options picked up for a potential fourth season of Ted Lasso, the next question naturally becomes: will Jason Sudeikis be returning? Whilst it has been rumored Sudeikis could return as an executive producer, there has been no news about whether Sudeikis will reprise his role as the titular Ted Lasso, but it has been confirmed that negotiations will take place with actors under SAG-AFTRA regulations. These questions sent fans into frenzy, as the award-winning comedy-drama hinted at the possibility of a spin-off, but Sudeikis seemed quite clear that Ted Lasso was always meant to be a three-season show.
Yet, despite Sudeikis’ incredible performance as the American fish out of water coaching Richmond F.C., I think Ted Lasso can survive without Sudeikis returning to an acting role. Not only does a fourth season of Ted Lasso already have what it needs to make a future seasons work, but it might create a more natural and interesting progression of Ted Lasso‘s narrative and thematic exploration, one that is fresh and new.
Hannah Waddingham Can Carry a Fourth Season of ‘Ted Lasso’ on Her Own
Perhaps the biggest strength of a fourth season of Ted Lasso without the titular character is that they have Hannah Waddingham back. This allows Sudeikis to step aside and let Waddingham’s Rebecca take the lead, as they were pretty much co-leads throughout anyway. There was a teaser at the end of Season 3 of Waddingham’s Rebecca and Juno Temple’s Keeley getting excited over creating a Richmond F.C. woman’s football team, and Waddingham could easily carry that storyline to fill the void Sudeikis’ Ted would leave behind. Not only is this something that Waddingham expressed great interest in, in an interview with TVLine, but her award-winning performance and brilliant screen presence would continue the safe feeling we felt when we were with Ted.
This doesn’t mean ignoring the men’s football team, but rather expanding the show to tackle new topics within football that would distract us from Ted’s absence. However, many actors have not yet been confirmed as returning, and Jamie Tartt’s Phil Dunster has been confirmed as not returning for Season 4 due to scheduling conflict, so to have a fresh story line ready to go that already has a key actor returning to explore is huge. Topics such as creating a women’s football team and the challenges that come with that provide great potential for conflict. When I think back to how Waddingham delivered her speech about the love of football to the other club owners in the Season 3 episode “International Break,” it would be fascinating to see that passion put into creating an entirely new team.
In terms of sticking with the story of Richmond as a football club, Waddingham may be better served as the lead rather than Sudeikis anyway, as a sort of passing of the torch. Since Ted left the club rather definitively, it is a struggle to envision how he could return to Richmond without an utter collapse of his personal life, which would feel like a step back. It may be that his life is settled enough now that he can return to Richmond, but this also feels like a cop-out of what made Ted so interesting: a kind man with awful dilemmas before him.
Sudeikis’ Presence Will Live On Through “The Lasso Way”
Season 3 of Ted Lasso heavily explored the “Lasso Way” as Trent Crimm (James Lance) described it. This philosophy was the key to Richmond’s entire way of playing, which was built on mutual trust and love shared by everyone throughout every level of the club. Trent thought it was brilliant for football, but he wouldn’t have realized how key the Lasso Way is to the entire Ted Lasso show. By the end of Ted Lasso, it was Ted’s impact on those around him that became almost more interesting than Ted himself.
The subplots following Nate’s (Nick Mohammed) impostor syndrome, Tartt, Keeley, and Roy’s love triangle, as well as Colin’s (Billy Harris) homosexuality and Isaac’s (Kola Bokinni) reaction to it, all solve each other through love. Nate accepts the love of Ted and comes back to him, as well as sorting out his relationship with his father and girlfriend Jade (Edyta Budnik). Tartt, Keeley, and Roy are all able to love each other and find a way out of their triangle, with Keeley choosing to focus on her own happiness, and Isaac’s love for Colin overcomes his lack of comfort in knowing how to react to Colin’s homosexuality. The “Lasso Way,” as Trent Crimm defined it, is such a deeply rooted philosophy throughout the show that Ted Lasso would live on in spirit through the other character’s actions.
With Ted’s philosophy and impact being retained on Richmond F.C., a fourth season of Ted Lasso would explore an overlooked aspect of sport in fiction – what happens after the era. In real sport, eras, and managers pass, but there is a philosophy and history that connects them all, as Ted and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) explained in Season 3 about the history of ‘total football’ and the legacy of Cruyff and Pep Guardiola. We have seen the boxer, the runner, and the coach after their own glory days, but rarely do we see their glory days in the same film/TV show. Similarly, we rarely, if ever, see an organization go through its prime and then see the era after in the same medium.
Overall, the fourth season of Ted Lasso throws up tons of interesting ideas for the writers to explore, even without Sudeikis. The show has actors that are good enough and loved enough by fans to carry the show even if Sudeikis does not return and there are genuine storylines already in place for the fourth season to explore. Not only this, but Sudeikis’ performance would live on in spirit through the Lasso Way and provide a fascinating path not often explored so thoroughly in film or TV.
Ted Lasso is available to stream on Apple TV+
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