Will ‘Ted Lasso’ End With Season 3? Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein and Juno Temple Try to Answer
Will “Ted Lasso” end after its upcoming Season 3? Yes and no. The show’s stars continue to dance around the subject as there’s the door hasn’t yet shut — until, at least, series star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis definitively says so.
For now, Brett Goldstein — who stars as former footballer Roy Kent, and also serves as a writer on the show — carefully threads that needle: “It’s written as in the story we have been telling will reach a conclusion,” he told Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “And that’s how it was always planned. That doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t continue. But it’s a kind of three act conclusion to this story.”
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Goldstein and fellow “Ted Lasso” stars and Emmy nominees Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple dropped by the podcast for a lively chat about the show’s future, their dream projects, their tight bond, and what’s next. Listen below!
“The good thing is we genuinely don’t know,” Waddingham said. “I would have definitely blown it by now and said, ‘Oh, no, no, we’re teasing you.’ “
Waddingham, who plays Rebecca, said she has been dreading the end of “Ted Lasso” since it began, “thinking, ‘Oh, God, when is this going to end?’ I don’t want to leave her, this character!”
Like Goldstein, Temple — who plays Keeley on the show — says she doesn’t know the answer to the future of “Ted Lasso” after Season 3. “ No one has told me it’s over,” she said. “No one said that to me. And but no one said that it’s not. So I don’t I’m literally in limbo.”
Goldstein notes that it’s in Sudeikis’ hands. “And he can decide whatever he wants,” he said. “And we’ll trust in whatever he says.”
Added Waddingham: “And maybe he deserves a break too.”
Even if it is technically the end for “Ted Lasso,” Temple noted that “things don’t ever have to completely end. Things can come back years later, or they can not… When a show comes to a conclusion, those characters don’t die, they go on and live their little fruitful lives in somebody’s imagination. So you can come back to it. And as actors, I know, we’re gonna miss them all a lot. I am for sure. Keeley has taught me so much about being kinder to myself, and I really miss her when I don’t get to play her.
“But also I think there’s something about it too, you don’t want to push something so far that then doesn’t become the joy that it is,” she added. “I’m guilty of that, when a show ends. I remember when ‘Friday Night Lights’ finally ended, I was like, ‘NEVER!’”
Waddingham said she was like that when “Schitt’s Creek” ended. “I was genuinely bereft, that I wasn’t gonna have Catherine O’Hara on my tellybox anymore,” she said. ‘[But] you don’t want it to water down and become less than it was. That’s the biggest thing for me. That it that it’s a beautiful entity as it is. And if that’s how it remains, and that’s how it was meant to be.”
Added Temple: “But we’re not saying that’s the case!”
Goldstein, Waddingham and Temple are all nominated in their supporting roles for “Ted Lasso,” prizes that both Goldstein and Waddingham won last year, in addition to Sudekis’ win for lead actor and the series’ victory in comedy series. The show is up for another 20 Emmys this year, the most of any comedy.
In Season 2 of “Ted Lasso,” AFC richmond owner Rebecca, played by Waddingham, starts the season dating a dud, but eventually strikes up an unlikely relationship with one of the team’s players, Sam. Meanwhile, Roy Kent, played by Goldstein, is struggling to adjust to life after retiring from playing football, while embarking on a relationship with Keeley, played by Temple, who is also exploring her own new career.
Besides talking about the show’s future, Waddingham, Goldstein and Temple talked about their excitement over Goldstein’s cameo in the latest “Thor” movie. They also shared what they’re excited about next, including Waddingham’s upcoming new take on “Tom Jones” and Temple’s role in the final season of “Fargo.”
But first, our Awards Circuit Roundtable discusses the lead actor categories.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much, much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
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