Reports of Ted Lasso‘s death turned out to be premature.

Over the weekend, news dropped that a fourth season of Ted Lasso, may (or may not) be happening on Apple TV+ – but if it is happening, Hannah Waddingham, who played Rebecca Welton, owner of the AFC Richmond club, Brett Goldstein, who starred as player-turned-coach Roy Kent, and Jeremy Swift, Rebecca’s assistant and Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins were already on board.

However, Phil Dunster, who played Jamie, is not expected to return, as he is already at work on two other series, Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour and Apple’s Surface.

That leaves…well, rather a lot of Lasso’s regular cast, including Jason Sudeikis, who along with Bill Lawrence created the show, and who played the title character. According to Deadline, after securing the Waddingham, Goldstein and Swift, the studio is expected to start reaching out to cast members with SAG-AFTRA contracts whose options had expired to make new deals.

These cast members are expected to be Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, who wrote for the show and who played Coach Beard, and Juno Temple (Keeley Jones).

Lawrence told Collider earlier this month that the decision about returning for Season 4 ultimately rests with Sudeikis.

“Not only is he the star, he’s the head writer, and he’s also the dude whose life just has to be completely overhauled and moved to a foreign country with young children,” Lawrence explained. “It’s a big deal. So, as a fan, if someone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna happen again,’ I’ll go nuts. As a partner, I’m down for whatever he wants to do.”

Nick Mohammed, who portrays assistant coach Nathan Shelley in the show, has been outspoken about his desire for Ted Lasso to continue and stayed hopeful on social media that he would once again play the role. Following the recent reports, he posted a terse “I told you so” message on Twitter.

How to bring the characters back together is another concern; at the end of season 3, Ted gave up his head coach position and returned to the US to co-parent his young son. Deadline has reported that “early preparations” are being made for a Ted Lasso Season 4 writing room.

If all the needed cast and crew return and a fourth season is officially greenlit by Apple, production could potentially begin in early 2025.