Jason Sudeikis Slams 'Ted Lasso' Criticism: People 'Don't Have Imaginations'

11/13/2024 12:14 PM

Jason Sudeikis has a message for those fans who weren't happy with season 3 of Ted Lasso.

Sudeikis, 49, who played the titular character on the hit Apple TV+ show, was quoted in an oral history book "Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts," which was released on Tuesday, November 12.

In an excerpt published by TVLine, author Jeremy Egner suggested that the third season enabled "a small but hostile crowd of dissenters" who complained about "how the core cast had been scattered into different storylines" and claimed that "the narrative had gotten too diffuse and unfocused."

Egner went on to mention Sudeikis's past response on the topic. "Much like live theater, the show, especially season 3, was asking the audience to be an active participant," Sudeikis noted in the past before referring to Ted Lasso's "be curious, not judgmental" motto. "Some people want to do that, some people don't. Some people want to judge — they don't want to be curious."

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The creator of Ted Lasso elaborated on his frustration with the criticism.

"I'll never understand people who will go on talking about something so brazenly that they, in my opinion, clearly don't understand. And God bless 'em for it," he continued. "It's not their fault. They don't have imaginations and they're not open to the experience of what it's like to have one."

Sudeikis specifically pointed out the show's conclusion, adding, "Everybody's in better shape than when they started. Like a good Boy or Girl Scout at a campsite, we left it better than we found it. And if you don't see that in that show, then I don't know what show you're watching."

Ted Lasso premiered in August 2020, with Sudeikis playing the titular American football coach who moves across the pond to run a soccer team. After the show became a massive hit, questions surfaced about extending Ted Lasso beyond the originally planned three-season arc.

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Sudeikis has insisted that the season 3 finale — which aired in May 2023 — was meant to serve as a conclusion.

"This story is done," he explained on the "Fly on the Wall" podcast in May 2023. "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."

While Sudeikis has admitted that the Ted Lasso team "thought about" potential spinoffs, he didn't confirm a continuation at the time.

"I think that we've set the table for all sorts of folks … to get to watch the further telling of these stories," he told Deadline in March 2023. "I can't help but take the question as flattery for what all of us that were working on the show has tried to do. It's really kind of folks to even consider that because you never know what's gonna happen when you make things. The fact that people want more, even if it's a different avenue is lovely."

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Earlier this year, fellow Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence said a season 4 is possible — but it depends on Sudeikis.

"Whatever Jason feels like doing and whatever his decision is, we're all down with it," Lawrence, 55, told Collider in August. "If someone's like, 'Oh, it's gonna happen again,' I'll go nuts. As a partner, I'm down for whatever he wants to do."

There has been no official announcement from Apple TV+ about Ted Lasso's future. All episodes are currently streaming.