Jason Sudeikis was making $1 million per episode on Season 3 of “Ted Lasso.” However, despite his large salary, he initially declined to return for season 4.
“That wasn’t a negotiating tactic,” Sudeikis, 50, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Tuesday.
The former “SNL” star and “Ted Lasso” creator explained that at the end of Season 3, “The story was told. Ted went home to be with his son. I wasn’t going to have him uproot their lives to justify the money truck. It just didn’t make sense to me.”
The hit Apple TV comedy, which first aired in 2020, follows a down-to-earth American football coach, Ted Lasso (Sudeikis), who moves to England and guides an underdog football team to success.
It was a cultural phenomenon and star-maker for the likes of Brett Goldstein, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Phil Dunster.
The show also helped establish the streamer as the Emmy and Golden Globe favorite it is today (fellow Apple show “Widow’s Bay” recently received 19 nominations in its freshman season; “The Studio” and “Pluribus” also won similar awards).
Season 3 ended in 2023, with Ted leaving England to be a more hands-on parent to his young son and returning to his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri.
Sudeikis said he changed his mind about ending the show in season three. The reason for this is, “Playing a character who sees the good in people and doesn’t get angry because of the world’s weaknesses, bullying, and shadows is contagious.”
He joked that he was not a method actor like Daniel Day-Lewis, but said, “It was good to live in it and have it running through your brain and body all day long. It still is.”
According to THR, the cast and creators have expressed interest in returning, and Sudeikis was the “lone holdout,” in part because of his public divorce from Olivia Wilde, with whom he shares son Otis, 12, and daughter Daisy, 9.
The former couple were together from 2011 to 2020 and settled their bitter custody battle in September 2023, with Sudeikis reportedly paying her ex-husband $27,500 a month in child support.
According to THR, the cast didn’t want to ask him for information about a potential season 4, given the drastic changes in his personal life.
Waddingham recalled that the cast “just reached out to each other and said, ‘Did you hear that?'” “Have you heard of it?” “Have you heard of it?”
Season 4 brings a change to the show as Ted returns to coach the women’s team.
Cast members including Temple, Goldstein and Waddingham will reprise their roles, but Dunster, who played brash player Jamie Tartt, will no longer be a series regular.
Dunster also reportedly had scheduling conflicts with HBO’s “Rooster,” in which he co-starred with Steve Carell.
In an interview with People magazine in March, Dunster declined to say whether he knew much about Season 4 or if he would return. The actor shyly said, “Maybe.”
He added that he had “met quite a few” of the new cast members, “and I think it’s going to be great. I really do. And it’s got a lot of things that people love about this show and want again.”
Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and is a co-creator of the show, told Entertainment Weekly that he is “not against” a new three-season chapter with this new storyline.
“I know I needed this. I needed it just like everyone else,” Sudeikis told THR.
“Ted’s Lasso” Season 4 premieres on Apple TV on August 5th.
