‘Ted Lasso’ Director: Season 3 Finale ‘Was the End, But It’s Also the End for Now’

Dan Clarendon August 13, 2023, 10:54 am

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Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham in 'Ted Lasso' — Apple TV+

Ted Lasso’s third season ended with a sense of finality — the May 31 finale was even titled “So Long, Farewell.” But Apple TV+ hasn’t specified whether that installment the ending or an ending for the Emmy-winning football comedy. And Declan Lowney, who directed Season 3’s last episode and seven others in the series, suggests in a new interview that there might be more to come.

“Everybody knew it was the end, but it’s also the end for now,” Lowney tells The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh, reflecting on filming the finale. “It’s going to be two or three years before anything happens — if anything happens — so let’s try and tie up all these stories properly.”

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Lowney, who earned an Emmy nomination for helming that Season 3 capper, says the first “So Long, Farewell” pages he got from star/writer/co-creator Jason Sudeikis didn’t have much in the way of closure. “I’m trying to remember how the script was delivered, because I’ve a feeling I might have gotten a big chunk of it, and then there’d be more coming — but I didn’t know how much more yet,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘There’s a lot of tying up to do!’ And then Jason gave me the remaining pages, and it was like, ‘Ah! That’s what he’s doing here.’”

10 Potential 'Ted Lasso' Spinoffs Teased in Season 3 Finale

Amid talk of possible continuations and spinoffs, Sudeikis said on the Fly on the Wall podcast earlier this year that the “story is done” (per Entertainment Weekly).

“It sounds like such a political answer, but it’s the truth. We only conceived these three [seasons], then this thing became this big old thing,” he added.

Co-creator Bill Lawrence, however, was eager for more Ted Lasso as of 2021. “The initial story Jason had in his head is a three-season arc, [but] I’m hopeful there’s more Ted Lasso stories to tell after three seasons,” Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “Hey, in my head, I’m like, Ted Lasso moves home and he should coach the professional team that’s a block away from Jason’s home in real life.”