Ted Lasso Co-Creator Talks the Surprising Fan Feedback to the Series

Audiences first met Ted Lasso in 2013, with Jason Sudeikis appearing as the character in a series [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Audiences first met Ted Lasso in 2013, with Jason Sudeikis appearing as the character in a series of NBC promos, leaving most viewers shocked by the announcement years later that the figure would headline his own series on Apple TV+. Understandably, audiences were somewhat dubious about how effectively a character from a commercial could translate into their own sitcom, only for Ted Lasso's debut in 2020 to result in an overwhelmingly supportive reception from fans, made all the more unlikely given the global pandemic. Rather than being received with cynicism, Ted Lasso proved to be a beacon of hope that audiences were desperate for, which co-creator Brendan Hunt was shocked to discover while scrolling through Twitter. Season 2 of Ted Lasso premieres on Apple TV+ on July 23rd.

"It goes without saying, we certainly wished we hadn't debuted in a pandemic, we wish there was no pandemic to debut during, but if we were some help in that difficult time, that's great, because that's, obviously, not what we were setting out to do," Hunt revealed to ComicBook.com. "Pretty quickly after the show debuted, and, I think, maybe specifically, because there were three episodes that came out all at once in the beginning, the Twitter reaction was different. It wasn't just that people were liking it, people were deeply into it from the beginning, and then as the story went on and the ups and downs and the wins and losses of it all came to a head, it was really, really cool to see people's reactions to it. It was starting to mean something to them. As bad for the world as Twitter may be, Twitter was a real helpful window into how people were taking the show."

In Season 2 of the series, Jason Sudeikis is Ted Lasso, an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team — despite having no experience. But what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for with optimism, underdog determination...and biscuits. The widely acclaimed series also stars Hunt, Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster, and Nick Mohammed. Sarah Niles joins the cast this season as Sharon, a sports psychologist who has been brought in to work with AFC Richmond.

In addition to his overall enthusiasm, fans have also connected with the various obscure puns and references all of the characters are known to make, with Hunt breaking down the process of how these incredibly specific jokes end up in the show.

"It's a process thing. A lot of us in the writers' room, especially me, Joe [Kelly], and Jason, come from an improv background and, in improv, there are no mistakes. Even if someone makes a mistake in a scene, you add that mistake, you repeat that mistake, you heighten that mistake, so I think we brought that energy to the writers' room," Hunt pointed out. "If somebody makes a flub or accidentally discovers a pun, it's like, 'Yes! That!' You find it and sometimes just write it on a card and put that card on the wall and put it aside until its time comes. Or, that day happens to be, 'Yes, perfect, put that in right now, don't change a word, exactly like that thing that you didn't say on purpose because you were eating a sandwich while trying to talk and you almost died.' Both ways, is the short answer. Sometimes they happen organically, sometimes we do go back to something that happened. If they just happened around the table, we're not necessarily trying to do an inventory of puns, per se."

The first two episodes of Ted Lasso Season 2 debut on Apple TV+ on July 23rd.

Are you looking forward to the series' return? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.

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