During the montage that ended what was widely thought to be the series finale of Ted Lasso, the writers worked in a “breadcrumb” or two, in the words of co-creator Brendan Hunt. The most notable: Keeley (Juno Temple) presenting a proposal for an AFC Richmond women’s team.
After the show wrapped and all the editing and PR work was done, the writers took a while to decompress and then decided that maybe there were more stories to tell. They got together at a resort in Ojai, Calif., for two days to spitball ideas and play a little golf. (Not Hunt, though: “Didn’t much care about that, but I sure like riding the golf carts,” he says.)
By the end of the retreat, Hunt (who also plays Coach Beard in the show) says it was clear that “there’s something here. The soil remains fertile.”
Among the ideas they kicked the tires on for Season 4—which premieres on Apple TV on Aug. 5—was relocating the setting to Kansas City, where Ted (Jason Sudeikis) had moved in the finale after resigning as Richmond’s coach. “In the end, we felt like Richmond and London are too much a part of the DNA to get away from that,” says Hunt.
So they settled on the idea of focusing on the formation of a women’s team, coached by Lasso. That the show would lean into women’s sports isn’t a surprise. Sudeikis has long been a presence at women’s pro and college basketball games, and much of the cast and crew got caught up in the European Women’s Championship, with England winning while the show was shooting in that country in 2022.
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