Ted Lasso is Back, But Coaching a Different Team
Three years after Ted Lasso appeared to say goodbye for good, Jason Sudeikis and the gang are back on the pitch. Season 4 changes the game — but not the heart of Apple TV+’s beloved comedy.
For a show that once insisted that believing was everything, Ted Lasso certainly gave its audience plenty of reason to believe it was over.
When the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ comedy wrapped its third season in 2023, the story seemed to have reached a satisfying — even quintessentially Ted Lasso — conclusion. Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) went home to Kansas to be with his son, Henry. Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) remained at AFC Richmond. Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) stepped into the manager’s job. Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) found love and married Jane. Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) continued building her own career.
The pieces had been rearranged, but they seemed to fit.
So, for three years, viewers had to assume the Greyhounds had played their final match.
Now comes the biggest surprise of all: Ted Lasso is back.
Season 4 premiered August 5 on Apple TV+, bringing Sudeikis back as the relentlessly optimistic American coach — and reuniting much of the ensemble that made the series a global phenomenon. New episodes are arriving weekly through Oct. 7.
And the reaction to the comeback has been less “Why are they bringing this back?” than “How nice to see these people again.”
That distinction matters. Because Ted Lasso didn’t leave its audience demanding another season. It left them missing its characters.
The cleverness of Season 4 is that it doesn’t simply hit the reset button.
Ted is no longer the clueless American football coach dropped into the middle of English soccer. He has been through three seasons of triumph, heartbreak, friendship, anxiety and personal growth. He knows Richmond. He knows himself. And he knows that coaching isn’t really about winning games.
This time, he’s taking on an entirely different challenge: a second-division women’s football team.
After returning to Richmond, Ted finds himself coaching a new women’s squad, bringing his peculiar combination of optimism, emotional intelligence and motivational clichés to a completely new group of players. Apple describes the season as a story about Ted and the team learning to “leap before they look” and take chances they never imagined taking.
The new team allows Ted Lasso to explore women’s sports, gender inequality and the very different pressures placed on female athletes while maintaining the show’s trademark mixture of comedy and sentiment. New cast members include Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern and Grant Feely.
Sudeikis is back at the center as Ted, while Waddingham returns as Rebecca, Temple as Keeley, Goldstein as Roy, Hunt as Coach Beard and Jeremy Swift as Higgins.
Rebecca is no longer the furious owner who originally hired Ted as part of a revenge scheme against her cheating ex-husband. Her relationship with Ted has evolved into one of the show’s most meaningful friendships — an unlikely bond between two people who, in the beginning, couldn’t have been more different.
Keeley, meanwhile, has gone from model and PR hopeful to one of Richmond’s most capable power players. Her friendship with Rebecca remains one of the show’s great pleasures.
And then there is Roy Kent.
Few characters have undergone a transformation quite like Roy. The perpetually grumpy former football star became a coach, mentor, romantic hero and reluctant dispenser of wisdom. Goldstein’s performance turned a character who could easily have been a one-note tough guy into one of television’s most unexpectedly beloved figures.
Then there’s Beard, whose eccentricity has always operated on a completely different frequency from everyone else’s.
Put those characters back together and the familiar rhythms return almost instantly.
For a series that ended so neatly, viewers had already begun the process of grieving it.
There was no obvious cliffhanger demanding resolution. No murder mystery left unsolved. No romantic triangle that required another 10 episodes. The show’s central character had made the most important decision of his life: He chose his son.
And that was precisely why the finale worked.
Ted wasn’t defeated. He wasn’t fired. He wasn’t killed off. He simply realized that being there for Henry mattered more than continuing to chase success thousands of miles from home.
The finale also suggested that Richmond would be fine without him.
Roy was ready to lead. Rebecca had found a new sense of purpose. Keeley was moving forward. Beard had found his own happy ending.
It was a finale that understood something many television series don’t: not every story needs to continue simply because the audience loves the characters.
Which made the announcement of Season 4 feel risky.
Could the show return without undoing what made its ending so satisfying?
So far, the answer appears to be yes.
Rather than pretending the third season never happened, the new season embraces the consequences of it. Ted’s departure matters. His time away matters. Richmond has changed. Ted has changed.
And yet, somehow, everybody is still there when he comes back.
There is something almost old-fashioned about the affection surrounding Ted Lasso.
The series arrived at a moment when television comedies were increasingly interested in antiheroes, dysfunction and cynicism. Then along came Ted — a guy who actually wanted other people to succeed.
He was relentlessly nice without being completely naïve. He could be funny without being cruel. And beneath the mustache, catchphrases and homespun wisdom was a character struggling with loneliness, anxiety, divorce and the fear that being positive wasn’t always enough.
That combination made Ted Lasso much bigger than a sports comedy.
It became comfort television.
The show’s return therefore isn’t merely about seeing who wins the women’s league. It’s about revisiting a world viewers spent years caring about.
The Season 4 premiere has the advantage of that accumulated goodwill. The characters don’t need lengthy introductions. Roy doesn’t have to explain why he’s angry. Rebecca doesn’t have to establish that she is secretly vulnerable beneath the designer clothes. Ted doesn’t have to convince us that he cares.
We already know them.
And that makes the new season feel less like a reboot than a reunion.
Apple has also added Emmy-winning producer Jack Burditt to the creative team as an executive producer, alongside Sudeikis, Hunt, Joe Kelly, Jane Becker, Jamie Lee and Bill Wrubel, with Goldstein continuing as a writer and executive producer.
That’s a significant vote of confidence in the show’s next chapter.
And perhaps the most encouraging thing about the comeback is that the series doesn’t seem embarrassed by what made it beloved in the first place.
There are still jokes. There is still soccer. There is still Roy Kent yelling. There is still Rebecca being Rebecca. There is still Ted trying to turn every setback into an opportunity for growth.
And, yes, there is still that fundamental belief that people are capable of becoming better versions of themselves.
That may be the most important thing Season 4 brings back.
Three years ago, viewers thought they had said goodbye to Ted Lasso.
Turns out it wasn’t goodbye. It was just halftime.
