{"id":874769,"date":"2026-10-08T05:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874769\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T05:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:08:10","slug":"ted-lasso-co-creator-star-brendan-hunt-explains-season-4-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874769\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted Lasso’ Co-Creator & Star Brendan Hunt Explains Season 4 Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the Season 4 finale of Apple TV<\/a>\u2018s Ted Lasso<\/a>, titled \u201cBeing Alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you thought the penultimate episode of Ted Lasso was packed with Mae\u2019s shocking death<\/a>, Keeley\u2019s (Juno Temple) surprise pregnancy and Zelda\u2019s (Tracey Ullman) unexpected (for some) deceit, you\u2019d better buckled up for the finale.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 56-minute episode featured a touching memorial for Mae, including a moving song by Niamh (Aisling Sharkey) and Siobhan (Rex Hayes); not one but two AFC Richmond manager shakeups with Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) quitting the men\u2019s team to take the helm of his old team Chelsea, signaling a possible exit for the fan favorite character; and Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds) promoted to head coach of the women\u2019s team upon Ted\u2019s (Jason Sudeikis<\/a>) recommendation, with him and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt<\/a>) as her assistants.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that was not all. The shareholder showdown offered a twist too, with Zelda\u2019s henchman Hugo switching sides and securing the Milk sisters\u2019 shares for Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), which, along with Mae\u2019s 2% left to her in her will, gave the accidental football club owner an unassailable majority 51% ownership. <\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, Ted told his son Henry about his father\u2019s suicide. Oh, and the finale also managed to squeeze in a marriage proposal as Rebecca spontaneously popped the question to long-term boyfriend Matthijs in her office.<\/p>\n

\n\tHunt, who co-created the series and co-wrote the finale with Sudeikis, spoke with Deadline about the episode\u2019s twists and how they set up a potential fifth season, addressing speculation that a renewal is imminent. He explained whether the finale marked the exit of Goldstein as a series regular (and Temple by association as Roy and Keeley are a couple again). Goldstein is the creator, exec producer and star of a new Amazon comedy series, Escorted, in addition to his duties on Apple TV\u2019s Shrinking and his movie career.<\/p>\n

\n\tBad news for fans of Ted Lasso\u2018s original Richmond men\u2019s team who have been holding out hope for a larger presence of the players in the show\u2019s new incarnation. The cameos by most of them in the Season 4 finale may have been the last we saw the team in a planned \u201cpassing of the torch\u201d moment from the men to the women, Hunt said, explaining why Phil Dunster\u2019s Jamie Tartt didn\u2019t make the scene.<\/p>\n

\n\tHunt detailed how Ted\u2019s conversation with Rebecca led to Alice\u2019s promotion and how the new dynamic may impact Ted. He also cleared confusion over the title of the finale, originally listed as \u201cThe Departing Lass\u201d but changed to \u201cBeing Alive\u201d when the episode aired.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, Hunt addressed the divisive character Zelda and whether Ullman would come back next season and shared the surprising inspiration for Beard\u2019s new look in Season 4.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn separate parts of the interview published earlier, Hunt revealed that there was an idea for the late actor Anthony Head to be in the Season 4 finale<\/a> and explained why the finale employed a cover of the theme song performed by Brandi Carlile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I hear that Season 5 renewal is imminent. What do you say?<\/p>\n

\n\tBRENDAN HUNT: Where did you hear that?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I have my sources.<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Well, then that\u2019s news to me. I certainly hope it happens, and I\u2019m optimistic, but yeah, haven\u2019t heard anything official yet. It would be nice though.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: And you don\u2019t have a Season 5 writers room going, correct? My understanding is that the writers room will start after the green light.<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Yeah. As happened for Season 2, they can greenlight a room before they greenlight a season if they want, but neither has happened.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: There were two big manager changes at AFC Richmond in the finale, the most important for longtime fans being Roy Kent\u2019s departure. We know how busy Brett is off-screen \u2014 he has a new show on Amazon, obviously Shrinking on Apple TV, movies. So, should we assume that he is leaving as a series regular?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: No, not necessarily. It is acknowledging that he\u2019s a busy man and giving us some wiggle room I would say. But no, there\u2019s no expectation of losing Roy and Keeley. But they are two very busy people, so wiggle room is a smart thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So it\u2019s possible that both Brett and Juno may not be series regulars in Season 5 and the Roy and Keeley storyline may not be as prominent?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: We have no idea. We don\u2019t know if we\u2019re coming back, and when we come back, we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to be going on in their lives. But yeah, they\u2019re both really busy. So yeah, the wiggle room.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Ted\u2019s line to Rebecca about wanting \u201cto talk to her about the newly open manager position\u201d came just after Roy had resigned, so I assumed that was for the vacated men\u2019s team job, and Ted was pitching himself or Nate who had just resurfaced. Instead, we got Coach Chilton promoted. Are the two things connected?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: He doesn\u2019t say the men\u2019s manager position.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: But why did he say \u201cnewly open\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Because he\u2019s coming in to let her know that he is no longer the manager of the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: OK. Let\u2019s talk about the decision to change that dynamic. It does make sense, Alice has proven herself, and it\u2019s a women\u2019s team, but Ted for the first time being a backup singer, how will that be? And will the show be called Alice Chilton next season?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Yeah, I think Apple\u2019s really excited about that (laughs). We just have to wait and see what is going to be the full impact of that dynamic. I\u2019m certainly interested in finding out like, is this a bit pie in the sky for Ted to think he can just shift down to backseat and have someone telling him what to do and where to be and making demands of him? We\u2019ll see how how he adjusted that. It might not be as easy as he thinks.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What prompted him to do that? We didn\u2019t get to hear his arguments to Rebecca.<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Well, he clearly is not spending enough time with his son, and he says to Henry in that previous scene, \u201cI\u2019m going to make some changes to make sure that I\u2019m not missing as many of your games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: And the men\u2019s team, is it now completely in the rearview mirror? Roy Kent was the only character that kept it in the picture even though we didn\u2019t see any of their games or any of the players until the finale. Do we care about who the manager will be? Is there any chance for Nick Mohammed\u2019s Nate to come back?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: I\u2019m not sure that we do care. We do love Nick, though. The men showing up in that last episode was really meant to be a passing-of-the-torch moment, and I think that worked well. We\u2019ve been very judicious with how much we see of the players this first season, and whether or not we\u2019re coming back, we\u2019ve taken the long view from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in Season 1, we actually met the players just a very little bit, and a little more in Season 2 and Season 3. So if we\u2019re able to come back, then yeah, we\u2019ll certainly be able to start giving more time to these players now that we\u2019ve gotten done a little bit.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Speaking of the players, the two Irish twin sisters emerged as standouts at the end of the season with their hilarious telepathy pig bit in episode 9 and their touching performance at Mae\u2019s memorial in the finale. Will we see more of that next season and more of Alice\u2019s personal life? There was only one scene with her partner this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: We\u2019ll have a lot to see but we like all these characters, and we\u2019re gonna try to get into all of them, a little bit more now that we set the table with them. But in terms of the twins, Rex and Ash were just fantastic together. There were a few good nominees for the twins when we were casting, but in the end it was like, these are them, and the degree to which they are different and similar is fantastic. They\u2019re so game for everything, and then to finally unlock that twin-telepathy thing towards the end was just really really cool.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Did they sing that song themselves and how did that come about?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: That is a traditional Celtic song that gets sung at funerals a lot. It was actually first pitched by Declan Lowney, one of our directors, who is an Irishman himself. And yeah, they crushed it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Phil Dunster was not in the finale with the rest of the team. Was it just for logistical reasons because he has the HBO series Rooster?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: It was a logic thing. Jamie lives in Spain [He plays for Barcelona]. We\u2019ve already seen him at that point [in Episode 6], so we didn\u2019t need to bring him back just to stand and applaud with the rest.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Speaking of Jamie, your character Coach Beard underwent quite a transformation this season, and there was online chatter that Beard may have tried to copy Jamie Tartt\u2019s look.<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: I didn\u2019t see that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Talk about Beard\u2019s physical transformation. Is it simply a midlife crisis, or was there more to it?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Yeah, he is going through a bit of a midlife crisis. First the Jane stuff, then trying to come back from the Jane stuff, and then getting the gut-punch of miscommunication on New Year\u2019s. We were not specifically going for Jamie Tartt but what a compliment. I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Was there inspiration for the look, though?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Not specific to Jamie, no, the hair was more Hugh Grant in his Four Weddings and a Funeral days, and then went to the costume department and our designer Jackie Levy, and it was awesome. Like what trying-too-hard-to-look-like-a-young-person stuff do we have? Now maybe she had Jamie in mind. I can\u2019t speak for her, but that was never discussed specifically.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: And the new look introduced at the end of the finale, was it Walter White-inspired?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: It\u2019s just a bald head and goatee, Walter White didn\u2019t invent that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Tracey Ullman\u2019s character Zelda, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen the discourse, she was very polarizing. Talk about her arc, and since Zelda technically is still a pretty significant Richmond owner, would you want her to come back? <\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: We love Tracey, and we love that character. Zelda has a stake but not a majority one. Again, the same with with Roy and Keeley, there\u2019s wiggle room there. Hopefully we get the chance to have her come over for some more. But we\u2019re not plot-obligated to have her around in every episode, and Tracey can go on with her life.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: The title of the finale changed last-minute to \u201cBeing Alive\u201d? Why? Was \u201cThe Departing Lass\u201d too British?<\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: Well, the change had been made a few weeks ago \u2014 it just apparently didn\u2019t make it to whoever puts those titles up, so it was not as late a change as it seems. It had been \u201cBeing Alive\u201d for the last like month at least. That was Jason\u2019s call entirely. He didn\u2019t walk me through his thought process entirely, what it did. I watched it last night, and when Hannah has her line about being alive, it was a nice little echo, frankly. So it is a little more than what the episode is about than just about the lass who has departed and a a cute little pun.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I don\u2019t think we ever find found out how the women\u2019s team ended the football season, did they win the final game? <\/p>\n

\n\tHUNT: They got promoted in the second to last episode, and then the win in the last episode is that they sold out. So the results of the game itself better than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the Season 4 finale of Apple TV\u2018s Ted Lasso, titled \u201cBeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5896,23536,88,23321,13022],"class_list":["post-874769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-apple-tv","tag-brendan-hunt","tag-entertainment","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-ted-lasso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}