Give credit to the England women’s national football team — nicknamed the Lionesses — for inspiring the return of “Ted Lasso.” The team won the UEFA Women’s Championship in 2022, right as Jason Sudeikis and company were shooting Season 3 of “Ted Lasso,” and the celebrations around the Lionesses’ victory were infectious.
“We got to watch in real time as the country went from ‘oh right, yeah, sure, women’s football’ to ‘yes! The Lionesses are the greatest ever!’ because they beat Germany in added time at Wembley,” says Brendan Hunt, the “Ted Lasso” co-creator, executive producer and writer who also plays Coach Beard. “Suddenly, the whole country was women’s football crazy in a way that they had not been a mere five weeks earlier. So that really stuck with us. Once we were on break, I think that idea just continued to take hold in Jason’s head.”
“Ted Lasso” ended its Season 3 — which at the time was pretty much considered a series finale — with a little bit of a potential future story: AFC Richmond team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and her best friend Keeley (Juno Temple) were mulling adding a women’s team to their organization.
“We definitely wanted to leave ourselves a breadcrumb, in case we wanted to find our way back,” Hunt says. “The women’s team idea was kind of like, ‘all right,’ because that’s just part of the reality. Almost every Premier League team has a women’s team … Once we were on break, I think that idea just continued to take hold in Jason’s head. It certainly helped that he was already a fan of the WNBA. He’s had season tickets to the New York Liberty for a while. He walks to their games, so it all just finally came together.”
