Ted Lasso season 3: everything we know so far

It’s looking increasingly likely that Ted Lasso season 3 will be the final instalment of the hugely popular soccer-comedy show. Sure, all good things must come to an end, but we’re not prepared to say goodbye by Ted and company just yet.

The Apple TV Plus show has stolen the hearts of viewers worldwide since its initial launch in 2020, with its positively heart-warming (and sometimes dark) storylines delivering plenty of laughs and tears. Given how much we enjoyed Ted Lasso’s second season, its next and potentially final batch of episodes has a lot to live up to. That pressure is only amplified further by the slew of 2022 awards season nominations that Ted Lasso has earned, including four Critics’ Choice gongs, three Screen Actors Guild awards, and three Golden Reel prizes. So expectations are certainly high for Ted Lasso season 3.

While we wait for its return, what do we know about Ted Lasso’s third season? According to one prominent cast member, filming began in February, but season 3’s release may come slightly later than its two predecessors’ launches did. And, if rumors are to be believed, Ted Lasso season 3 may start with the beginning of a new soccer season, which would be a first for the series.

Below, you’ll find even more information and news surrounding Ted Lasso season 3, including its potential release date, returning cast members, potential plot, and more. Spoilers follow for the first two seasons of Ted Lasso on Apple TV Plus.

Ted Lasso season 3 release date

Ted Lasso season 3 release date: 2023?

There’s no official release date yet. But, according to Hannah Waddingham, who portrays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton, principal photography on Ted Lasso season 3 was expected to start on Valentine’s Day, aka February 14 (per Collider). 

That’s a date that appears to have been verified by two other sources. According to a listing on the Production Weekly website (hat-tip to Reddit for spotting this), Ted Lasso’s third season will begin shooting on February 14. And, if a recent photograph on Brendan Hunt’s Instagram page is to believed – the actor plays Coach Beard – the show’s cast and crew may be beginning to gather in the UK ahead of filming the show’s next season:

Fans had hoped for the third season to launch this year, but that potential release date may have to be pushed back. In a TVLine interview, Hunt suggested that Ted Lasso season 3 may not even arrive until 2023.

“We are definitely starting later this year than in Season 2, that’s for sure,” Hunt says. “So I would be surprised if our delivery dates were the same. That’s above my pay grade, I don’t know for sure, but I do have a vague understanding of the limits of this dimension we call time, and I would say it seems pretty unlikely that we would [premiere] as early this year.”

Hunt went on to agree with Waddingham’s assertions that filming would start in February 2022 – telling TVLine that principal photography would begin “soon”, before adding: “It’ll happen, and it’ll take longer than people want it to, [but] we’re just going to try and get it right.”

In a separate interview with Mark Hoppus’ School Radio station program, Hunt also stated that filming was currently set to end this summer. “We’ll start in February,” he confirmed, before saying: “We’re supposed to finish in July, so it’ll be quite the chunk.”

If filming end in July, it’s always possible that Ted Lasso season 3 could arrive before the end of 2022. We’ll just have to wait and see how production goes first, though.

Ted Lasso season 3 cast

Ted Lasso season 3 cast: who is returning? 

We expect all of Ted Lasso’s main stars to return:

• Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso
• Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca Welton
• Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard
• Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent
• Juno Temple as Keeley Jones
• Nick Mohammed as Nate Shelley
• Jeremy Swift as Leslie Higgins
• Phil Dunster as Jamie Tartt
• Toheeb Jimoh as Sam Obisanya
• Cristo Fernandez as Dani Rojas

Prominent members of Ted Lasso’s supporting cast are also likely to return. That should include Kola Bokinni as Isaac McAdoo, David Elsendoorn as Jan Maas, Annette Badland as pub landlord Mae and Anthony Head as West Ham United’s new owner Rupert Mannion.

Lawrence has also confirmed that James Lance’s Trent Crimm and Sarah Niles’ sports psychologist Sharon will feature in season 3. Speaking to Deadline, Lawrence teased: “I can tell you both of them have significant roles next year.”

Other guest stars may be brought back into the fold but, right now, we aren’t sure who will reprise their roles. One potentially amusing cast addition would be Anthony Hopkins. Speaking as part of Mythic Quest’s season 3 and 4 renewal, which you can see in the tweet below, Hopkins revealed that he’d like to join Sudeikis and company. But, he joked, only if he could be Keeley’s new boyfriend. We think Roy would have something to say about that. 

We’ll let you know once we have confirmation of who’s returning, as well as any new cast members (Richmond are bound to make some new signings, right?).

Ted Lasso season 3 story

Ted Lasso season 3 plot: what will it be about? 

There are two major storylines that season 3 needs to deliver a fitting ending to.

The first concerns AFC Richmond’s Premier League return. After they secured promotion on the final day of last term, Richmond are back in the big time, but it won’t be easy to try and secure an unprecedented Leicester City-level title triumph. 

19 other clubs stand in their way, of course, including Manchester City. It was the Citizens who relegated Richmond in their final top-flight match in season 1, and it was also City who thrashed them 5-0 in season 2’s FA Cup semi-final. So we’re hoping that Richmond will finally get one over one of their biggest rivals in Ted Lasso season 3.

But City won’t be the only rival that Ted and his players have to contend with in the show’s third outing. In the season 2 finale, viewers were furious to learn that Nate, Ted’s former prodigy, had joined West Ham to become their new manager. His appointment comes in the aftermath of Rebecca’s former husband, Rupert Mannion, becoming the Hammers’ new owner.

So season 3 is gearing up to pit the master versus his apprentice at some point. Taking to Twitter after season 2’s last episode, Nate actor Nick Mohammed posted an intriguing 12-point document that reveals why Nate came to resent Ted and opted to join West Ham. It’s a fascinating insight into Nate’s character arc throughout season 2, so it’s worth checking out:

Hopefully, one of Ted Lasso season 3’s episodes will deliver a titanic clash between Richmond and West Ham, which would put Ted and Nate at odds on the pitch. As much as we can’t wait to see if Richmond will beat Manchester City, we’re also very eager to see Ted and Nate clash, from a tactical standpoint, from the dugout.

Regardless, Mohammed is about to divulge the direction of Nate’s season 3 arc. “I know where things are heading,” he told Collider. “But I obviously can’t give anything away about season 3. They’re writing season 3 right now, so everything is still up for grabs. Obviously, I can imagine the fans of the show would love to see the circle complete and it become a redemption arc, but who knows?”

Since chatting with Collider, Mohammed has opened up on whether Nate will be redeemed or not. Speaking to the BBC, Mohammed said: “I’m effectively the villain in it now, which is a funny place to find myself. The thing with Ted Lasso is the audience are possibly expecting a redemption arc for Nate, and I’d like to see one I think because that would be nice. But equally I could well imagine the writers thinking: ‘no, we’re going to turn it on its head’, because that’s what they did in season two, playing against everyone’s expectations, so he might be the one character they don’t redeem.”

In another interview (this time with Variety), Mohammed elaborated further on Nate’s potential path back to the light in season 3, saying:  “He tears up a lot, he stares at himself in the mirror a lot. I think that that is him looking at himself thinking, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ And if he’s thinking that, then maybe he’ll see that he’s not doing the right thing and come back to the good side.”

Away from the pitch, Ted Lasso season 3 will also need to wrap up smaller story threads. For one, audiences need some closure on Rebecca and Sam’s on-off relationship. The pair were no longer dating by the season 2 finale, but we imagine this isn’t the end of their romantic dalliance.

Speaking of relationship issues, it appears that Roy and Keeley may be hitting a rough patch, too. Keeley rejected Roy’s efforts to take her on a much-needed vacation in season 2 episode 12 – electing to stay in the UK and work on her newly-formed PR firm. It’s unclear what the future holds for this pair but, given that they haven’t officially broken up, we imagine that they’ll make amends and maybe tie the knot.

From Ted’s perspective, it’ll be interesting to see if his panic attacks remain. Sports psychologist Sharon had helped him to get to grips with them by the end of season 2, but we suspect that they’ll continue to plague him. If Sharon has as big a role as Lawrence has teased, could she return to offer more counselling sessions to Ted? It’s plausible. 

Not only that, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Ted offered Trent Crimm a role at the club. In the season 2 finale, Trent revealed that The Independent had fired him for revealing the identity of his source (i.e. Nate) who leaked Ted’s panic attacks. Ted could use Trent’s expertise in a media capacity, so why not hire him? It would mean that all of the series’ main characters are under one roof (Nate aside), which would be a somewhat fitting way to bring the curtain down on the show.

Regardless of where season 3 takes the show’s overall story, Lawrence promises that viewers could have worked out many of the series’ surprises from the beginning. So much so, in fact, that nothing in Ted Lasso season 3 should come as a shock when it does happen.

“There will be lots of surprises,” he told Deadline. “But anyone who says, oh, where Nate ends up in the finale is a big surprise…we felt like we were setting that up from the very first episode of last year. The clues are there. Jason and I are huge non-spoiler people, but yeah, I think some of the writing is already on the wall, hopefully.”

One thing we do know that we’ll see, however, is officially licensed Premier League kits and club logos in Ted Lasso’s next outing. According to sports publication The Athletic, Apple has agreed a £500,000 (around $682,000) deal with English top flight executives to use of kits, club badges and even the Premier League trophy in season 3. Could we see AFC Richmond lift the title in a fairy tale-style ending for the series? That would be extremely cool and emotional if they did.

Finally, in a different TVLine interview, Hunt suggested that season 3 will kick off (see what we did there?) at the beginning of a new soccer season, rather than beginning with the season already underway.

“We don’t like to do the same thing twice,” Hunt explained. “In Season 1, we joined the [Premier League] season in January. In Season 2, we joined the season in late September. We’ve never gone from the start of a season, so perhaps that’s something we want to get to.”

Ted Lasso season 3 trailer

Ted Lasso season 3 trailer: is there one? 

No. Shooting hasn’t begun yet, so it’ll be a while before we get a teaser. Once one is released, we’ll update this page.

Ted Lasso season 3 final entry

Ted Lasso season 3: is this the final season? 

Right now, it would appear so. Sudeikis and Lawrence have previously spoken about Ted Lasso being a trilogy of sorts – i.e. a series that comprises three seasons. So we should prepare ourselves that this will be the series’ final season.

That’s a point that co-writer Brett Goldstein added further weight to in a chat with Mr. Porter, saying: “We had a three-season arc planned. We are writing the end of that story. Whether there’ll be more after that, we’ll see, I genuinely don’t know. But I do know that the story that we were telling over three years will be complete.”

Still, never say never on future instalments. Lawrence has teased the prospect of returning for more if Ted Lasso’s story warrants it, and told Deadline that there may be a way of stretching the show’s overarching narrative out for another two seasons.

“What’s tough to process for me as a writer who is used to writing network comedy is, this was the end of the season, but the midway point of the show,” Lawrence said. “When we first pitched this particular story, we said this series was only going to be three seasons. And I would probably stay clean and say that even if Ted Lasso goes on, the story the writing staff has been telling had a beginning, middle and end for the first three seasons. And then it might veer off from that.”

The ‘veering off’ aspect , which Lawrence alludes to, may be an entirely new tale told in the Ted Lasso universe. Speaking to THR, Lawrence said: “When we started, we plotted out everybody’s beginning, middle and end of a three-season arc. This story is going to be over next year, regardless, even if the show finds another story to tell and goes on.”

Sudeikis, though, was more reluctant to discuss the show’s future after season 3. “I feel like a real coach when I have to tell folks you can’t look at season 4 when we’re in the middle of season 3,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “We can’t worry about the championships when we’re in the first round of playoffs, you know?”

That answer is sure to have disappointed Waddingham, who told Entertainment Tonight: “If I were Apple and Warner Bros, I’d be leaning on him [Sudeikis] like a lunatic and putting him in a corner in a little cage and giving him a notebook and a pen. It’s too beautiful.”

Hopefully, then, we do get a fourth season or even a couple of one-off specials. And, honestly, we’d be down for that. We’re not ready to say goodbye to any of Ted Lasso’s characters yet, even though the show should go out on a high if season 3 is to be its last hurrah.

If it does stick around for longer, though, we could certainly use more of the show’s wonderful positivity. In the vein of the show’s iconic single-word phrase – “Believe” – we’re keeping faith that Ted Lasso will continue after season 3. Whether we’re right or not, though, is yet to be determined.

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