Is Keeley back? Juno Temple sighting in KC as ‘Ted Lasso’ gets underway at Gates
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Juno Temple spotted filming in KC confirms Keeley's return for Season 4
- Filming locations include Gates Bar-B-Q, Blue Springs, and other metro sites
- Season 4 plot features Ted coaching women's team and highlights KC culture
“Ted Lasso” fans were excited to see film crews set up at the Gates Bar-B-Q in midtown Sunday as filming of Season 4 of the Emmy winning series is underway in Kansas City.
Photos posted on social media show British stars Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham taking shelter from the sun under an umbrella.
Temple’s presence is especially noteworthy because while the return of other lead characters had been confirmed, hers wasn’t.
The British actress plays the popular main character Keeley Jones, a public relations consultant for AFC Richmond, the club Lasso manages. Waddingham plays the football club’s owner and Keeley’s best gal pal, Rebecca Welton.
On Monday morning, podcaster Anthony Krysiewicz posted pictures from filming on the Country Club Plaza where streets were blocked off and a fake sign installed on the Johnny Was clothing store.
“Here is one of the few times I can actually share something’s I’ve been around during this filming,” he wrote.
A Monday afternoon shopper on the Country Club Plaza saw Sudeikis, wearing a KC Current jacket, on set. The shopper said it appeared filming was happening indoors on the cloudy day that began with rain.
Earlier in the day, a sign that said “Dazzle Me Moi” — a fake jewelry store? — was installed on the outside of the Johnny Was clothing store at 320 Nichols Road, where filming took place.
Plaza customers were allowed to come and go to nearby stores, but the shopper said no big crowd gathered to watch what was happening. “The general mood of the people around was just curiosity,” the shopper said.
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Apple TV+ announced in March that its Emmy-winning comedy, co-created by Jason Sudeikis, would return for a fourth season.
The series, which also stars the Shawnee Mission West High School graduate, ended in May 2023 after three award-winning seasons. Sudeikis played an American football coach hired to lead English soccer team AFC Richmond.
“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap,’ in season four, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be,” Sudeikis said in a statement in March.
When last we saw the “Ted Lasso” family, Lasso had returned to his home state of Kansas and was coaching his son in soccer, and Keeley was proposing that AFC Richmond start a women’s team.
The day that Season 4 was announced Sudeikis was a guest of the Kelce brothers on their “New Heights” podcast and revealed that “Ted is coaching a women’s team” in the new season. But he shared few other details.
The show was a ratings juggernaut, one of the streaming platform’s biggest successes when it debuted in 2020.
“Ted Lasso” was ultimately nominated for 61 Emmy Awards during its run, winning 13. That included back-to-back wins in the best comedy series category, as well as consecutive wins for Sudeikis.
Fans learned the show was coming here a few weeks ago when a local casting company put out a call for stand-ins and extras for scenes in Kansas City.
Though secrecy surrounds where they will be filming, the casting call mentioned that scenes would involve a restaurant — Gates, apparently — a flag football team, the airport, a museum, a soccer team and police officers.
Portions will be filmed in various locations around the metro, including Blue Springs, where officials confirmed a letter sent to a neighborhood there that mentioned filming on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It’s not surprising that the show would film at a Kansas City barbecue place.
Sudeikis’ character, a proud champion of Kansas City’s trademark fare, loves his barbecue sauce. Bottles of Arthur Bryant’s sauce have shown up in at least two episodes and Lasso has worn a Joearthur Gatestack T-shirt that pays homage to several of the city’s barbecue joints.
And, in one pivotal darts game in a pub, Lasso says “barbecue sauce” as a mantra before hitting a bullseye.
Online, fans who are looking for details on filming locations are arguing about where to swap that intel, warning each other stay out of the way of film crews.
The scene was much different last summer, when Hallmark filmed its Chiefs holiday movie in Independence and at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
The media was invited to watch filming at the stadium and the movie’s stars posed with fans while they were in town.
This story was originally published July 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM.
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