Ted Lasso, the award-winning Apple TV sports show that was believed to have concluded in 2023 with Season 3, is returning for another run.
Despite fans’ excitement, the announcement has been met with criticism over the show's latest promotional poster, with some viewers accusing it of reinforcing unrealistic beauty standards for women.
Highlights
- ‘Ted Lasso’ season 4 poster has fans accusing the makers of heavily Photoshopping female stars.
- The controversy has reignited past debates over excessive editing of female stars in Hollywood, including instances involving Melissa McCarthy and Rosie O’Donnell.
- The story for the new ‘Ted Lasso’ installment has moved from AFC Richmond’s men’s team to a women’s football squad.
Fans pointed out that while Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein appear naturally aged, the female stars, Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple, seem to have been heavily retouched.
"It's okay for the boys to have wrinkles, but Hannah and Juno's faces have been smoothed to no end," a netizen observed.
Ted Lasso Season 4's poster has invited backlash for heavily photoshopping its female stars
Image credits: Apple TV
Ted Lasso Season 4 will have its premiere on August 5.
It will feature the titular football coach training the women's team instead of AFC Richmond's men's team this season.
Despite this leap in storytelling, with the focus now shifting to women in sports, fans have pointed out how Hollywood preaches equality through storytelling but hardly practices it.
The center of their criticism has been the appearances of the leads on the poster.
Image credits: Apple TV
The airbrushing of Waddingham and Temple's faces made them "look like Barbies," a fan claimed, calling the action "wrong."
"It's actually insane," a second agreed.
"Who even pushes for it? Who thinks it looks good?" asked a third.
A fourth pointed out that the editors did not just get rid of wrinkles on the women's faces but also hid "Hannah's crooked bottom teeth.”
A fifth argued that the makers failed to give Juno the hairstyle makeover to suit her transition from "just a model/WAG" to the owner of a PR business.
"They should have had her pivot to her big curly hair," they said, complaining, "God forbid they let women have anything but straightened hair."
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Image credits: Apple TV
Many, meanwhile, observed that the editors did not go easy on the Photoshopping of the men either.
"If I'm being honest, they're all bordering on that uncanny valley," one said.
"I think they tried to de-wrinkle Sudeikis too, but his wrinkle game is just too strong, so some shine through," claimed a second before adding, "Seriously though, real people have wrinkles. Do they think we don't know that?"
A change of heart from Jason Sudeikis paved the way for the show’s fourth season
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The series' last episode premiered on May 31, 2023, and ended with Ted returning home to Kansas City to coach his son's soccer team, Keeley Jones (Temple) proposing a women's team to boss Rebecca Welton (Waddingham), and former team captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) becoming head coach of the men's squad.
AFC Richmond, meanwhile, finished second in the league, and the hilariously mute Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) married his girlfriend Jade.
Image credits: The Hollywood Reporter
Every character was set up for a happy ending, but that wasn't enough for co-creator and writer Jason Sudeikis, who started having second thoughts about the show's conclusion in February 2024.
"I was like, 'Oh, I don't know if it's done,'" Sudeikis told The Hollywood Reporter on July 22.
Fans’ love helped reassure him, with many sharing how the series had changed or even saved their lives. His response was often simple: “It saved me too.”
He insisted he was being completely sincere when he said that, explaining, "It is infectious to play a character who sees the best in people and isn't mad at the world for all its foibles and shadows."
The majority of Ted Lasso’s cast will not be returning
Image credits: Apple TV
"Throughout the course of the season, Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would," streamer Apple TV said in a press release addressing the plotline's shift from the men's football team to the women's.
Because of this narrative pivot, a majority of the show's former cast will not be returning.
Image credits: Apple TV
Sudeikis, Waddingham, Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins), Temple and Goldstein will be back, but viewers likely won't be seeing recurring members of the AFC Richmond team, like Dani Rojas, played by Cristo Fernández, or Sam Obisanya, played by Toheeb Jimoh.
Phil Dunster, meanwhile, who played hotshot Jamie Tartt in Seasons 1–3, will also not be starring in Season 4 due to scheduling conflicts with his role in HBO's Rooster.
Season 4 is believed to be "considerably stronger" than Season 3, the cast told THR.
Waddingham, for her part, will have a love interest, she told The View on July 17.
She kept mum when asked for details about who would romance her but teased that the actor is "not unattractive."
The backlash has resurfaced past controversies over excessive photo editing of women
Image credits: Kelly Kline/WireImage via Getty Images
Melissa McCarthy was featured alongside co-star Sandra Bullock against a pink and red backdrop in the promotional artwork for their 2013 buddy-cop comedy The Heat.
The film had two separate posters released for the US and the UK markets.
While the US version put the actresses into a photo negative, fans felt the UK version had McCarthy's neck and face slimmed down to a level that did not reflect how she looked in real life.
"They took 30 lbs off of her. This is one of the worst Photoshop jobs I have ever seen," a netizen wrote about it.
Image credits: 20th Century Fox
This was not the first time, though, that she had undergone the “Photoshop diet.”
For instance, she was given a slimmed-down look for the poster of the 2011 romantic comedy Bridesmaids.
Rosie O'Donnell faced a similar problem for Beautiful Girls in 1996.
"It was an ensemble piece, so there were many, many actors in it, and you never got to work with everyone. So when the poster came out, and it was sent to my office, I looked at it and said, 'Oh, didn't know Courteney Cox is in this,'" she told VH1 in June 2013.
When she complained about the Photoshopping to producer Harvey Weinstein, O'Donnell said he replied, "You should thank me. You never looked better."
"Unfortunately old and fat women are not allowed in Hollywood," a netizen said
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