‘There Will Be Things That Are Revelatory’

The cast of Ted Lasso, the hit AppleTV+ show that returns for its third season on March 15, have been suitably cautioned not to give away any spoilers about the likely final edition of the streaming program. Ask Jeremy Swift, who plays fan-favorite Leslie Higgins, club owner Rebecca Welton’s righthand man, for details on the new episodes, and he offers a grimace and an apology.

“I honestly couldn’t do that,” he says. How about dropping a few details about the emotional journey of this final arc? Again, not something Swift is prepared to do. “I don’t actually know,” he says. “Of course, I’ve seen all the scripts, but the scripts change so much, and I’m not in every scene. So what I found with the first few seasons, there is so much finessing, and there’s improvisation, so you never know for certain what the end product will look like.”

Here’s what Swift, whose character has a happy and fulfilling home life that contrasted with his often-challenging work life in season one, can say: “There have been breadcrumbs dropped leading up to the journey that you can see in retrospect, like when you look back at Nate’s journey. There will be things that are revelatory about relationships and characters that you can go, ‘Really? Oh, because actually, yes, now that I think about it in season two, this happened, blah, blah, blah.’ So there’s that kind of gear shift that is going to happen.”

It’s safe to assume that this season of the program, which has won 11 Emmy Awards and been nominated for 29 more, will come full circle on Nate’s jarring departure from Richmond in last season’s finale, a plotline that earned Nick Mohammed a Best Supporting Actor nod. (He lost to castmate Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent.)

And Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) will have another panic attack—that’s no spoiler, it’s in the latest trailer. Presumably he’ll begin to come to terms with his father’s suicide, a revelation that brought the bitter amid the sweet of season two.

Many other threads were left loose in season two as well: the breakup of Kent and Keely (Best Supporting Actress nominee Juno Temple); the hookup—or is it more—between two other best supporting nominees, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Sam (Toheeb Jimoh); the on-again, off-again manic pixie dust relationship between Beard (Brendan Hunt) and the appropriately named Jane Payne (Phoebe Walsh).

“I think the audience knows all the nuances of these people,” Swift says. “There are no small characters on this show.”

As for Higgins and his brood? The spotlight shone on their family last season during the Christmas episode, when Swift had a chance to act alongside his real-life wife, Mary Roscoe, who plays Julie Higgins on the show. He says his family enjoyed watching that episode. “They loved it, they thought it was very sweet,” he says. While he can’t say much about what’s in store for Higgins this season, Swift does say it’s “fabulous” working with his wife. “This is something to tell your grandchildren about—and we already are telling them,” he says.