The Apple TV+ hit series Ted Lasso will be back filming for its third season on Valentine’s Day 2022. Even though Ted Lasso has become Apple TV+’s biggest hit, picking up the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy for its first season, there have already been hints from creator Bill Lawrence that the upcoming season could be the last due to scheduling conflicts with Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character. The news of the impending shooting schedule arrived courtesy of Hannah Waddingham, who last year won an Emmy herself for the work in the series, and will be returning for the new season.
Appearing on The Late Late Show with James Cordon, Waddingham confirmed that the series is getting underway with its next season a lot earlier than many people expected. She said:
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Ted Lasso was one of those series that was born out of nothing, being inspired by an advertisement series for NBC Sports, and while this kind of series can either live or die by whether a character can sustain a series, Ted Lasso has more than proven that there was enough in the tank to take the American football coach to the next level after his years as a viral promo. The series follows Lasso as he is drafted in by an English soccer team to coach them to victory. The series is full of wit, charm and uses Lasso’s upbeat attitude to deliver messages of optimism that has really endeared him to audiences.
“We start on Valentine’s Day, which is rather lovely. But I think because Jason is from SNL and Brendan [Hunt], who plays Coach Beard, is from Second City, which is in Chicago… and because Brett does stand-up, they write like the framework of the show, and then, the amount of times, and me with kind of like lots of emotional monologues, I will suddenly get completely different words just before the camera’s about to go on me… And at first, I was just like, you can’t do this to me, and Jason was just like, you’re absolutely fine. I think they like doing it because you get the immediate knee-jerk reaction to something, but my mid-40s brain can’t cope with it at all. I’m one stage away from having idiot boards, because it’s hardcore! They’re just used to that SNL kind of world.”
The series was one of many to be given a huge boost by the Covid lockdowns of 2020, with the first season arriving in August last year and being discovered by many looking for something new to watch while being unable to do very much of anything. With a strong focus on story and character development, it was always likely that the show would not run indefinitely unless they were going abandon all that hard work to force more seasons from the characters. While fans will be disappointed if this does turn out to be the final season of Ted Lasso, in the long run, it will ensure the series as a whole is well remembered rather than ending up being undone in an attempt to squeeze more from it than it can actually give.
You can watch Ted Lasso streaming on Apple TV+.
