The upcoming season of Ted Lasso is introducing brand new characters — but the series’ star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis had to say goodbye to the previous cast first.
Apple TV’s hit series was supposed to end with its 2023 finale as Sudeikis’s titular character returned to the U.S. after three seasons as coach of a British men’s soccer team.
Instead, Sudeikis and his fellow co-creators began to brainstorm about continuing the show. Eventually, they landed on a fourth season centering on an all-female team, the cast and creators told The Hollywood Reporter in an article published Wednesday.
However, the new creative direction meant that the fictional AFC Richmond team at the center of the first seasons would not return. Sudeikis, 50, was tasked with explaining that to the actors who played those teammates in “very difficult” individual phone calls, he told THR.
“Because I didn’t want them to hear it on the internet,” the Saturday Night Live alum told the outlet. “And because I love those guys and we all went through something together.”
Although the old team will not be coming back to the show, lead actors including Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein will all be returning for the long-awaited fourth installment.
Currently, there is no update to whether supporting actors Toheeb Jimoh (Sam), Cristo Fernández (Dani), Kola Bokinni (Isaac) and Billy Harris (Colin) will return, although Jimoh joked that he expected his character to have a funeral in the new episodes. Plus, potential guest appearances still remain on the table.
The Independent has reached out to Apple TV for further comment.
Phil Dunster, who played Jamie Tartt, will also be absent from season four due to scheduling conflicts with his role in Steve Carell’s comedy Rooster, it was announced earlier this year. The actor told podcaster Zach Sang that leaving the show felt like “the end of school when you graduate.”
In another shake-up, the series recast the child actor who plays Henry, Sudeikis’s character’s son. Grant Feely will take over the role in the new episodes.
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An official logline for season four, out August 5, reads: “Ted returns to Richmond, taking on his biggest challenge yet: coaching a second division women’s football team. Throughout the course of the season, Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would.”
