Ted Lasso Co-Creator Addresses Star Wars Easter Egg

The third season premiere of Ted Lasso was released on Apple TV+ this week, and it caught fans up on what their favorite characters – and least favorite characters – have been doing. Last season, Nate (Nick Mohammed) turned on Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and went to work for West Ham United to coach for Rebecca’s (Hannah Waddingham) villainous ex-husband, Rupert (Anthony Head). In the premiere, we get a glimpse of Rupert’s office, which happened to look like the Emperor’s throne room from Return of the Jedi. This has led to speculation that Nate will eventually turn on Rupert the way Darth Vader turns on the Emporer in the third Star Wars film. TV Line recently had a chat with Ted Lasso‘s co-creator, Brendan Hunt, who also plays Coach Beard on the show. During the chat, Hunt was asked about the Star Wars connection. 

“It doesn’t suggest anything at all,” Hunt answered playfully. “How dare you! Hey man, that was just an office we found at London Stadium. Apparently, when they were doing the Olympics, they wanted to put something together like that.” He added, “Thank you for noticing that office … Paul Cripps, our production designer, has been doing stellar work from Season 1. But that office may be his crowning achievement. Like, I would just hang out in that room when we weren’t even shooting. It’s f*cking great!” You can check out a photo of Rupert’s office below:

“I don’t think Nate is happy now. Sadly Nate, bless him, he’s a troubled soul,” Mohammed recently told Deadline. “I rarely think he’s ever 100 percent happy and he’s always worried about something. Undoubtedly, he’s made this decision to be at West Ham, this fancy club that comes with perks. In the moment, he’s positive about those things like driving his fancy new car and having a bigger salary but I think he’s realizing they won’t make him truly happy. He still carries the regret, guilt, and shame with the way he left AFC Richmond and the way he talks to Ted. I think that’s going to eat at him until he’s able to find some kind of catharsis or he addresses Ted directly.”

“There’s a lot of anticipation as to whether Nate is getting this redemption arc and all I’ll say is that it’s not up to me or even the writers. I think it’s more about the audience and their capacity for forgiveness,” he added. “To some people. Nate’s betrayal at the end of Season 2 was the straw that broke the camel’s back and there’s no going back because he can’t re-write history. He did and said those things. Let’s say for the sake of argument he apologizes, get’s on his knees and begs for forgiveness. He still did it. There is an element of whether the onus is on the person to forgive Nate rather than for Nate’s forgiveness to be absolute. Like everything with Ted Lasso, it’s not so clear-cut in that way, it’s more nuanced. It’s not that he is definitely redeemed or not, there’s a blurred line there.”

Would you like to see Nate redeemed a la Darth Vader? Tell us in the comments!