by Jason Snell
Apple TV+ eyes ‘Ted Lasso’ comeback
Nellie Andreeva and Peter White reporting for Deadline:
Ted Lasso fans, this is not a drill. In a major step toward the long-awaited fourth season of Apple TV+’s hugely popular soccer comedy, the series’ studio Warner Bros. Television has picked up the options on the three original cast members who had been contracted under the aegis of the UK acting union Equity, sources tell Deadline.
Contract options differ on different sides of the Atlantic, but Apple has picked up the options of Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Jeremy Swift, suggesting that it is moving forward with making more “Ted Lasso.” The strong implication is that series creator Jason Sudeikis is onboard with extending the series in some fashion.
Given how successful “Ted Lasso” was, it was all but certain that Apple would want it to continue if Sudeikis could find a path forward that satisfied him. Apple’s money presumably also provided some motivation.
This is far from a done deal, though. All the American cast members are out of contract, just for starters, and many of them have been given huge career boosts by the show and are working a lot.
Still, no matter how you feel about the series and how it ended, its success made its return close to inevitable. And now it’s closer still.