A comedy series about an unknown American football coach who moves to England to manage a football team despite his lack of experience? Sounds kind of special. But Apple TV has proven in two "Ted Lasso" seasons so far that the whole thing can not only be very entertaining for sports fans. And that you don't have to be able to explain the offside rule to have fun with the off-pitch characters and off-pitch drama.
The third season is now appearing around Jason Sudeikis (47) and his team. From March 15th, the streaming service will show twelve new episodes. At first, however, only the first episode can be seen, the others always come out of the cabin on Wednesdays.
The fictional AFC Richmond and his coach Ted Lasso (Sudeikis) start the new season with a lot of momentum. For the two previous seasons, the series was nominated for 40 Emmy Awards, the most important US television award, in 2021 and 2022. "Ted Lasso" was able to win eleven Emmys in total - including two as best comedy series. There were further awards in both years for Sudeikis as best leading actor and for Brett Goldstein (42) as best supporting actor in a comedy format. Hannah Waddingham (48) was named Best Supporting Actress in 2021.
It's not easy for AFC Richmond as a promoted team. The English media see the club as a lift team and directly predict relegation from the prestigious Premier League. Nate (Nick Mohammed, 42) left Richmond after a dispute and is now working for Rupert (Anthony Head, 69) at West Ham United. But he doesn't seem too happy with that, as at least one trailer for the third season suggests.
Alongside Beard (Brendan Hunt, 51), Ted Lassos, who is also struggling with personal problems, is now joined by Roy Kent (Goldstein) as an assistant coach. Meanwhile, Rebecca (Waddingham) is desperate to beat Rupert and Keeley (Juno Temple, 33) has to prove herself as the head of her own public relations agency. Things are threatening to get out of hand both on and off the field.
"Ted Lasso" ultras, meanwhile, may not be pleased that the likeable manager's contract with AFC Richmond is unlikely to be renewed after this season. "This is the end of this story that we wanted to tell, that we hoped to tell, that we loved to tell," Sudeikis said in an interview with the industry portal Deadline in early March.
It is flattering for the actor, who was also involved in the development of the story, that the fans already want more from "Ted Lasso", even if they do not yet know where the coach and his club will be after the new episodes . But maybe that will change by May 31, when all episodes of the third season have been released, says Sudeikis. Series fans might then think, "Man, you know what, we get it, we've had enough."
So is it likely to end after the third season? "It's not necessarily the end of the series. It's just probably the end of this story because we've always seen it as this three-part thing," explains Hunt, one of the executive producers alongside Sudeikis. There will be some sort of ending at the end of the season, "but ending doesn't have to mean the end," Hunt says vaguely.
Maybe the series will continue without Coach Lasso or there could be spin-offs. According to Sudeikis, at least the prerequisites for further stories around some of the characters have been created. He finds it delightful that the audience itself wants more in other ways.
No matter what happens to Ted Lasso and his team, AFC Richmond has already won the hearts of many spectators.
