22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
'Ted Lasso' Season 4 Casting Update—Phil Dunster
By now you've probably heard the news that Apple TV+'s breakout comedy Ted Lasso is coming back for a season 4. You might even be aware that season 4 has already started filming, with many lead cast members returning. But it's not all good news. Based on the cast news, it looks like Phil Dunster isn't returning for Ted Lasso season 4. And while I am in mourning, I can't help but wonder what this could mean for Roy and Keeley.
Phil, who starred in the series as the bad boy of AFC Richmond Jamie Tartt, reportedly doesn't have a Ted Lasso season 4 deal—at least, not yet. It's still completely possible that Phil—and fellow OG cast member Nick Mohammed—will reach some kind of deal to reprise his role in some capacity, but given that they've already started production, it just probably wouldn't be as a series regular.
The actor's absence from season 4 would be sad, yes, but it's not all bad. In fact, this might be the best thing that has happened to Roy and Keeley shippers in years. Unlike Phil, stars Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein have both been confirmed for the season, which means their respective characters, Keeley and Roy, could get another shot at love.
Keeley, Roy, and Jamie ended Ted Lasso season 3 still stuck in an unresolved love triangle (or a budding throuple, depending on which fans you ask). And as a Roy-Keeley shipper, I would be lying if I said that Jamie's absence in season 4 wasn't giving me some hope that we'll get to see the Roy F**king Kent and Keeley Jones be the power couple they were always meant to be.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2023—long before season 4 was ever confirmed—Brett, who is also a writer on the show, confessed that he could see Roy and Keeley getting back together in an imaginary future. 'I like the fact that some things aren't resolved so that I can dream what I wanna dream,' he said at the time. 'Now, in my dream, there's a lot of Roy and Keeley, and there's a lot of Roy, Keeley, and Jamie.'
He continued, 'In my dream version, if it's a throuple, it's mostly Roy and Keeley, but Jamie joins in occasionally.' Sounds like a perfect guest spot, if you ask me.
