Star and creator Jason Sudeikis confirms he’s bringing back Ted Lasso for a fourth season

Nearly two years after the character said goodbye, Jason Sudeikis has confirmed he’s bringing Ted Lasso back for another season of his feel-good, Emmy-winning comedy hit.

One of the most beloved and acclaimed comedies of recent years, Ted Lasso, is coming back.

Creator and star Jason Sudeikis has confirmed he will pick up the whistle to return to his award-winning role as the moustached, daggily-dressed coach of fictional English Premier League football club AFC Richmond for a fourth season of the multi-Emmy winning comedy, nearly two years after he said goodbye in May 2023.

“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap’,” said star and executive producer Sudeikis.

“In season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to leap before they look, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be.”

Ted Lasso has inspired a passionate fanbase all over the world.

The show about an inspirational, endlessly optimistic American college football coach who is employed by the vengeful owner of beloved EPL club in the hope he will fail miserably so she can get back at her ex-husband first appeared in 2020 and quickly became a global feel-good hit for Apple TV+ when many parts of the world were still in Covid lockdowns.

Jason Sudeikis and co-stars and co-writers Brett Goldstein (left) and Brendan Hunt (right) are all returning for season four of Ted Lasso.

Sudeikis’s role earned him an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2021 and the first season became the most Emmy nominated debut comedy season ever, with seven wins from 20 nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series and acting awards for Hannah Waddingham, as AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton and Brett Goldstein for his ageing hardman player Roy Kent.Sudeikis and Goldstein repeated the feat the following year for the second season, which pulled off a rare back-to-back win for Outstanding Comedy Series.

After three hit seasons, during which Lasso won over the sceptical players, press and management with his unconventional methods, kindness, decency and homespun homilies and guided the beleaguered team to success, the underdog coach headed back to America to be with his family.

There’s no word yet on when it will air, where the story will go from here or other returning cast – although Goldstein and Brendan Hunt, who also played Coach Beard, are confirmed as executive producers – and Waddingham told this publication last year that she’d be open to reprising her role as Welton.

US actor Jason Sudeikis poses with the awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series for Ted Lasso at the 2022 Emmy Awards. Picture: Frederic J. Brown / AFP

Sudeikis first played Lasso as part of a 2013 promotional campaign for US network NBC, which had just gained the EPL rights there. The fish-out-of-water premise was a hit in raising the awareness of the sport and the elite competition in the US, and was repeated again the following year.

Sudeikis says Lasso is his ideal self, embracing curiosity instead of cynicism and kindness in the face of the abuse-chanting legions who want to see him fail.

Ahead of the release of the first season, Sudeikis said: “He’s 100 per cent the best version of me,” he says.

“I wish I could bottle him up and spritz him on me whenever I am in one of my low points, as any of us feel daily.”

In addition to being a critical and audience hit, Lasso also became something of a cult figure, and was incorporated into the FIFA 23 video game, and the cast was invited to the White House by then US president Joe Biden to promote mental health and wellbeing ahead of the launch of the third season in 2023.

British actor Brett Goldstein, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and English actress Hannah Waddingham look on as US actor Jason Sudeikis speaks at the White House in 2023 Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP)

“Ted Lasso has been nothing short of a juggernaut, inspiring a passionate fanbase all over the world, and delivering endless joy and laughter, all while spreading kindness, compassion and unwavering belief,” said Matt Cherniss, head of programming for Apple TV+.

“Everyone at Apple is thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Jason and the brilliant creative minds behind this show.”