Knowing Season 3 could be the end of the road for “Ted Lasso,” actor and writer Brett Goldstein — who plays soccer legend-turned assistant coach Roy Kent — shared that he would feel “very very sad on a lot of levels” if this were really the final season of Apple TV+ comedy series.
“I really, really love the show, really care about these characters and I love the people,” he told TheWrap in a recent interview. “You wonder if it’s a once in a lifetime thing where it’s such a good group of people to spend your days with. Every day you’re like ‘this is nice isn’t it, that we all get to hang out and make this thing.’ I’ll miss all of it.”
“Ted Lasso” Season 3 debuts on Wednesday, March 15 — releasing one new episode weekly every Wednesday through May 31 — picking up with AFC Richmond re-entering the Premier League after the club’s relegation in Season 2. Goldstein reflected on the production of the new episodes after the positive reaction from viewers and Emmy wins.
“When we made Season 2, Season 1 hadn’t come out yet so we didn’t know what the reaction was, so it was different because we did know the reaction by the time we were making Season 3,” Goldstein said. “It becomes a thing where you’re very grateful, but you have to shut down that in your head, because you’ve got to stick to the story that we were gonna tell regardless of knowing what people like and what they don’t like.”
Creator Jason Sudeikis shared that deadlines provided the main pressure this season as well as resources, but said that the joy of making the show balances it all out.
“The process of making it was a very joyful experience, and you don’t feel pressure when you’re having fun doing something,” Sudeikis told TheWrap. “I also didn’t want to waste people’s time or money. Everybody has their own plan they’re dealing with, but they’re also part of this team, this family, this system, and it’s how that system attracts and responds to various elements within themselves, but also within the community that they’ve created. That’s the thing that we’re definitely messing with this year — how AFC Richmond handles things.”
When asked about the pressure that comes with the arrival of Season 3, Goldstein said they just had to trust their instincts.
“You have to trust that this is the story that Jason always had in his head, and also you liked what we did so far so even if it goes in directions you might not think you want it to go in, hopefully it will be satisfying if it’s surprising or good,” he said. “We always said, ‘You want to land the plane well, everyone’s safe.’ It’s also a nice thing knowing where the story goes. We know how it ends, so it’s like how do we make sure that ending is as satisfying as possible?’”
Co-creator Brendan Hunt, who portrays Ted Lasso’s (Jason Sudeikis) loyal assistant Coach Beard, echoed Goldstein’s sentiments of having the end in mind.
“It made us cast such a broad umbrella to make sure that we didn’t miss anything that we wanted to do, but also that we didn’t do more than we needed,” Hunt told TheWrap. “You always gotta be looking to cut the chaff, but it was very special to be in that room knowing that this was gonna be the culmination of at least this part of whatever the story of ‘Ted Lasso’ is. We took it seriously, but tried not to take it too seriously.”
“Ted Lasso” Season 3 premieres Wednesday, March 15, on Apple TV+.
