In an interview with Deadline, British actor Nick Mohammed (Christopher Robin, Intelligence, The Martian) talked about his character Nathan Shelley in the increasingly popular “football” dramedy (drama + comedy) Ted Lasso. In the finale of season two, Mohammed’s character abandoned/betrayed the protagonist Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudekis (We’re The Millers, Horrible Bosses, The Angry Birds Movie) and his team AFC Richmond for a better gig as an assistant coach for West Ham United.
Right after the initial premiere of Ted Lasso Season three on March 15, Mohammed answered questions about a possible yet probable redemption arc for his character, saying “There’s a lot of anticipation as to whether Nate is getting this redemption arc and all I’ll say is that it’s not up to me or even the writers. I think it’s more about the audience and their capacity for forgiveness. To some people. Nate’s betrayal at the end of Season 2 was the straw that broke the camel’s back and there’s no going back because he can’t rewrite history. He did and said those things. Let’s say for the sake of argument he apologizes, gets on his knees and begs for forgiveness. He still did it. There is an element of whether the onus is on the person to forgive Nate rather than for Nate’s forgiveness to be absolute. Like everything with Ted Lasso, it’s not so clear-cut in that way, it’s more nuanced. It’s not that he is definitely redeemed or not, there’s a blurred line there.”
He also addressed the emotional fragility of his character and the reason behind the switch from AFC Richmond to West Ham United saying, “I don’t think Nate is happy now. Sadly Nate, bless him, he’s a troubled soul, I rarely think he’s ever 100 percent happy and he’s always worried about something. Undoubtedly, he’s made this decision to be at West Ham, this fancy club that comes with perks. In the moment, he’s positive about those things like driving his fancy new car and having a bigger salary but I think he’s realizing they won’t make him truly happy. He still carries the regret, guilt, and shame with the way he left AFC Richmond and the way he talks to Ted. I think that’s going to eat at him until he’s able to find some kind of catharsis or he addresses Ted directly.”
The promptly nicknamed “wunderkind” was introduced into the series early on in season one as the towel boy for the team often bullied by teammates like bad boy Jaime Tartt, played by Phil Dunster (Pragma, Murder on the Orient Express, The Good Liar). After seeing his potential go underutilized, Lasso takes Nate under his wing, once given a chance to shine, Nate shows off his intensive knowledge of the sport giving notes, strategies, and plays to the team, though eventually his ambition got the best of him. He decided to leave his family at Richmond and get a better paying gig at West Ham.
Nate’s return to Richmond is highly expected from the audience after seeing narcissistic playboy Tartt come back to his rightful place at AFC. SO in all likelihood, we will see some sort of emotional reunion between Lasso and Shelley apologizing to one another and coming back together as a team. Ted Lasso is currently available on Apple TV.