Many viewers would agree that AppleTV+ brought us a true gem when Ted Lasso debuted in 2020. The soccer… OK, fine, football, comedy quickly garnered positive reviews from audiences and critics alike, with Season 2 becoming a hotly anticipated property immediately after everyone got their fill of the freshman outing. Now, with the second installment long completed and having left us with several questions, people will want to know everything they can about Ted Lasso Season 3. Without further ado, here’s what you need to know about the upcoming season of hilarity, football shenanigans and deep feelings!
Ted Lasso Was Renewed For Season 3 In October 2020
Luckily, fans don’t have to deal with any protracted waiting period just to see if we’ll actually be gifted with a third season of Ted Lasso. The series was renewed back in October of 2020, before production had even started on Season 2. Of course, this is hardly a major shock, considering how massively popular and sincerely beloved the show became after its debut.
Ted Lasso Season 3 Will Begin Filming In Early 2022
If you wanted more very good news as a fan of Ted Lasso, you’ve come to the right place! Along with the show being renewed for a third season, we also know that Ted Lasso Season 3 is set to begin filming in early 2022. And, it seems that by “early” we can literally expect that to mean “a few weeks into the year.”
On January 4, star Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard and also co-created, executive produces and writes the comedy) posted a photo of himself and lead Jason Sudeikis on Instagram as they were about to board a plane. His caption, “Here we go,” seems to indicate that filming will start very soon, which is in accordance with what both Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt) and Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Welton) had to say about when the show would start filming.
In late October 2021, Dunster told Variety that the plan was to start on January 31. Just a couple of months later, though, Waddingham appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and said that they’d all be heading back to the tales of AFC Richmond on February 14. Either way, it seems that it won’t be long into the new year before we can start to get some reports from the Ted Lasso set.
Ted Lasso’s Stars And Writers Are All Expected To Return
While many of the Ted Lasso cast members were plenty recognizable before the show, their work on the hit has certainly made them stars who are on a different level. This means that fans are looking forward not just to the series returning, but to seeing more of their favorite characters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, much of the main cast closed new deals to continue with Season 3 by mid-September 2021, with those who make up the beloved team of footballers for Richmond and other actors likely making new deals by a few weeks after that.
So, we can definitely expect to see Sudeikis (Ted Lasso), Waddingham (Rebecca), Hunt (Beard), the very real Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent), Juno Temple (Keeley Jones), and Dunster (Jamie) return for the new season. But, we can also expect to have more from actors like Nick Mohammed (Nate Shelley), Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins), Toheeb Jimoh (Sam Obisanya), Kola Bokinni (Isaac McAdoo), Cristo Fernández (Dani Rojas), and Billy Harris (Colin Hughes), along with many of the supporting players.
Fans can also look forward to the overall feel of Ted Lasso remaining the same, as Sudeikis, Hunt, Goldstein, and the other writers will all return for Season 3, as well.
Ted Lasso Season 3 Will Have 12 Episodes
Season 1 gave audiences a decently sized episode count of 10, but the second set of episodes surprised by adding two to that total when Apple decided to up the number. While Ted Lasso Season 3 won’t increase the episode count again, Sudeikis revealed in a post-Emmy win interview in September 2021 that another 12 episodes had been ordered for the new season.
Ted Lasso Season 3 Should Debut Sometime In Summer 2022
The cast and crew of Ted Lasso might seem to be cutting things close by filming in early 2022 for a Season 3 debut in the same year, but according to the THR report from above, that’s still the plan. The first two seasons hit Apple TV+ on August 14, 2020, and July 23, 2021 respectively, and we should still be able to watch new Ted Lasso before summer 2022 comes to a close. Apparently, one of the reasons deals with the writers and much of the cast were finalized by mid-September, is so that the writer’s room could get going as previously planned on September 13. They seemed to have hit that goal, and appear to be on track to deliver the new season this summer.
Nate Might Not Be Redeemed By The End Of Season 3
I doubt that many of us watched Season 1 and had a clear idea of where Ted Lasso Season 2 was going for the sweet, knowledgeable, formerly bullied Nate. As much as he loved being trusted by Ted and Coach Beard, he hated it when Roy was also appointed a coach, and let his fears of being abandoned / not being good enough lead him down a shady path, which ended with him likely being at least one of the Big Bads for Season 3.
Now, Nate’s portrayer, Nick Mohammed, has noted that we actually might not see Nate be redeemed by the end of the new season. As he told the BBC:
We’ll see if Nate manages to find his way back to Richmond. But 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 2, playing against everyone’s expectations, so he might be the one character they don’t redeem.
I tell you what, if Nate doesn’t get a second chance, but somehow someone like Rupert (Anthony Head) does, fans will not be pleased.
All Three Seasons Of Ted Lasso Will Tell A Complete Story
As all Ted Lasso fans will know by now, the series was pitched with a three-season plan, and the original goal was for the story to end with the third season. However, when you have a show that has entered the cultural zeitgeist the way this one has, it makes sense that fans, those at Apple and probably several of the creatives behind the popular comedy would love for it to continue beyond Season 3.
Whether it will or not hasn’t been fully decided yet, but executive producer Bill Lawrence told Deadline:
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.
So, even if Ted Lasso does last through Season 4 or beyond, we can count on the story that we’ve seen so far being completed by the end of Season 3. And, what that might mean for the future of this heartwarming series is certainly exciting to think about!