'Ted Lasso' star Hannah Waddingham says show's return is like a dead dog coming back to life

Article content

Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham is absolutely “thrilled” that the beloved Apple TV+ series is coming back for a fourth season.

At the premiere of Smurfs this week, Waddingham, who won an Emmy for her role as AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton on the series, told Variety that she can’t wait to begin shooting new episodes of the soccer comedy in the coming months.

“It feels like it was the most beautiful, beloved dog that was buried, and now we’ve exhumed it, and I am here for it,” Waddingham told the outlet. “I was hankering and hankering and hankering and hankering to see where Rebecca had gone, where she was going to. She’s my girl. She’s in my bloodstream, so I’m thrilled that it’s been exhumed.”

Waddingham continued, “I can’t wait to get involved with that and put my penneth in and go shopping for her looks.”

Earlier this year, the streamer announced the Jason Sudeikis-led dramedy about an optimistic American soccer coach making a name for himself in England would be returning for a new batch of episodes.

“In season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be,” Sudeikis said in a statement.

Originally created by NBC Sports to help promote English Premier League soccer back in 2013, Sudeikis told Postmedia that he wanted to give Ted his own spinoff because he loved the character’s “optimism and enthusiasm.”

Ted Lasso became a TV hit for Apple when it launched in 2020 and won 13 Emmys, including outstanding comedy series for its first two seasons.

Season 3 of Ted Lasso was supposed to be the dramedy’s last, but after pleas from its devoted fanbase, Warner Bros. Television and Apple confirmed the series would continue as it picked up options on several of Sudeikis’ co-stars, including Waddingham, Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent) and Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins).

When it returns, the show will reportedly find Ted coaching a women’s soccer team.

“Ted went through some highs and lows in that first commercial,” Sudeikis said, reflecting on the character’s genesis in a 2020 interview. “But the series became something we felt we could do after doing the second commercial. We had a mix of childlike enthusiasm and unwavering optimism that I always felt, as they say in show business, gave it legs.”

But after the first season proved to be one of the most-talked about shows of the year, Sudeikis couldn’t quite answer why so many people fell in love with Ted when we spoke the following year.

“I wish I knew. I’d like to think that some of the things we had creative control over, like making intentional choices with the way we told the story and hiring really great people in front of and behind the camera had something to do with it. I think it was the right amount of alchemy between those elements and old-fashioned good luck,” he said.

mdaniell@postmedia.com