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Put those jerseys back on, football fans, Ted Lasso is officially returning to Apple TV+ for season 4. The news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story on March 14, and probably inspired a great deal of excitement from viewers. But among those cheers and maybe even tears, some longtime watchers were almost certainly asking, 'What the hell took so long?' 

Well, the answer could be that Jason Sudeikis was busy with violent animal stories. Let us explain.

Along with the announcement of the long-anticipated fourth season, THR reported that the series' perpetuation after season 3 hinged "largely on Sudeikis committing to continue" (he is the titular character, after all). Speaking to THR earlier this year, co-creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence said "You will find that anybody involved with Ted Lasso will say the same thing: Our fearless leader Jason Sudeikis will talk about that when he’s ready."

Well, he's apparently ready now, and while we're certainly not complaining, we feel like it's worth asking what took him so long. And a quick search of the SNL alum's projects after Ted Lasso seson 3 wrapped in 2023 shows a strange trend: he's spent a whole lot of time telling action-packed animal stories.

In his most recent animated feature project, Hitpig, Sudeikis plays a porcine bounty hunter that gets too close to a target. That film came out in November of last year. Very soon, Sudeikis returns to the recording studio to reprise his role as Red in the third Angry Birds movie (interesting to note: "hitpig" is also the plot of Angry Birds). And finally, though he doesn't actually play an animal in this one, Sudeikis spent 2024 voicing the sidekick of Hit-Monkey, Marvel's bloody animated project from Hulu. 

Again, we're not complaining in the least, especially since we feel that all the time the Ted Lasso creatives had to formulate a fourth season will ultimately make for a better season. Still, if somebody walks into the Apple studios with a script about a kickboxing goat, do try and keep it away from Jason Sudeikis - otherwise the Ted Lasso season 4 release date might take even longer to get here.

Ted Lasso seasons 1-3 are currently streaming on AppleTV+.