Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple shared a similar thought when the return of Ted Lasso was announced.
Both Waddingham and Jones appeared in the first three seasons of the hugely popular Apple TV series: Waddingham as Rebecca, the imposing owner of the fictional British soccer club AFC Richmond, and Temple as Keeley Jones, a model-turned-powerful PR executive and Rebecca’s close friend.
But despite their roles in the show’s success — including Waddingham’s 2021 Emmy Award win — neither was sure they’d be asked back for the latest season.
Waddingham told The Hollywood Reporter that upon learning of season four, she wondered: “Am I in it?”
And Temple told the publication she asked her agents the same question: “I was like, ‘Oh, do you think they want me?’”
Turns out that both women were asked back for season four, which follows Jason Sudeikis’s Ted as he returns to coach AFC Richmond’s women’s soccer team.
The feel-good comedy-drama, starring Jason Sudeikis as an American football coach hired to manage a Premier League soccer team, debuted in 2022 to widespread critical acclaim. It won back-to-back Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022. It originally concluded in 2023 with its third season, which proved divisive among fans, with some accusing the show of losing its way.
A surprise fourth-season revival was then announced in March 2025.
Waddingham and Temple will reunite with Sudeikis, Jeremy Swift and Brett Goldstein for season four, alongside a handful of new cast members, including Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds, Faye Marsay, Abbie Hern, Jude Mack, Aisling Sharkey and Rex Hayes.
Waddingham told The Hollywood Reporter that she and Temple became unofficial mentors to the slew of women brought in to play the new soccer teammates.
“I was teasing them, like, ‘Just wait till you see your face on a great big billboard,” Waddingham said. “Like, you f***ing wait!”
However, given the show’s new premise, many of the cast members who portrayed the stars of Ted’s male soccer team will not return.
Recently speaking about the “very difficult” phone calls he had with each individual actor to explain their absence in the new season, Sudeikis said he did so because he “didn’t want them to hear it on the internet.”
“And because I love those guys and we all went through something together,” the We’re the Millers star explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ted Lasso season four premieres August 5 on Apple TV+.
