There’s a theory that Jason Sudeikis used the Ted Lasso Season Three premiere to throw major shade at Harry Styles and if this marks the resurgence of the Don’t Worry Darling drama I will scream.
In case you haven’t watched the episode, which dropped on Wednesday, there was a major focus on Ted’s relationship with his young son Henry (Gus Turner).
At the end of the episode, while the pair were FaceTiming, Henry showed his pop an Infinity Gauntlet toy which someone named “Jake” gave to him.
“Who’s Jake?” Ted asked.
“Mommy’s friend,” Henry replied.
And thus Ted’s Joker arc was spawned. I jest, but the man looked fucking filthy and ambulance sirens started blaring. Mayday mayday, indeed.
Maybe’s it the magic of three, maybe it’s climate change, but this season feels different.
Here we go!
— Ted Lasso (@TedLasso) March 15, 2023
It’s now time to regress back to Year 12 English (or English Literature, if you were so inclined) and unpack the scene.
If you cast your mind back to 2021, you may recall the rumour mill speculating that Harry Styles was the reason behind Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde‘s split the year prior, which ended up becoming v. messy.
Sudeikis, in peak messy binch who loves drama fashion, served Wilde legal papers while she was presenting at CinemaCon in April 2022 — a move she later slammed as “aggressive” and an attempt to “threaten” her.
Then Sudeikis and Wilde’s former nanny went gung-ho in October spilling tea left, right and centre about the couple’s split, claiming Sudeikis had once laid down in front of Wilde’s car to stop her from seeing Styles and that she was stringing her former fiancé along.
So I think it’s safe to hazard a guess that Sudeikis wasn’t too happy about the mother of his children moving on with another bloke in two shakes of a lamb’s tail — something we saw Ted experience, as well.
We also can’t look past the choice of toy that Henry was playing with, which was ye ol’ Infinity Gauntlet.
Thanos rocked this in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and eagle-eyed fans mapped out the connection between Styles and the Gauntlet ‘cos of the bloke’s (albeit v. brief) role playing Eros — Thanos’ brother — in Eternals.
*Spoiler* Anyone else catch the subtle dig at Mom’s new friend at end of #TedLasso? @Harry_Styles plays Thano’s brother in the MCU 😬😂 @PopcastPod @jamiebgolden pic.twitter.com/C2MmSt0tgk
— Lauren Taggart (@lauren_taggart) March 15, 2023
And for all the Don’t Worry Darling fans reading this (anybody? No?), Styles’ character was named Jack, which obviously sounds similar to “Jake” — the new man who has entered Ted’s ex-wife Michelle’s (Andrea Anders) life.
My tinfoil soccer cap is firmly on.
New episodes of Ted Lasso Season Three will be hitting Apple TV+ on Wednesdays, so you’ll have to wait a few more days to see if Sudeikis has hidden more alleged Harry Styles disses in the show. My soccer balls are already shaking.
