Ted Lasso Season 3 has finally debuted, and with it came plenty of pop culture references, like a callback to last season’s not-real-but-kind-of-real Bantr dating app and lots of movie references. Alongside this, there were even two iconic Nintendo franchises that got a cool name-drop.
The first quote referenced the Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros., as Ted says at the beginning of the episode: “Sorry, we got distracted. Little guy was trying to unlock Princess Peach on Super Smash Bros.”
While all the Super Smash Bros. games have ways to unlock characters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gives players an idea of who they’re unlocking based on the challenge they’re doing, so unlocking Peach was indeed lore accurate.
The second reference was arguably one of the most successful and celebrated Nintendo games in recent memory, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild. Right after Ted talks about Smash Bros: the flight attendant says: “That’s ok. I once held an entire flight hostage until I finished the final level of Breath of the Wild.”
The final level of Breath of the Wild could be incredibly long depending on exactly what they were talking about – this would encompass beating the big boss twice as Calamity Ganon and Dark Beast Ganon. Unless they were a speedrunner, in which case it could only take 11 seconds.
These fun little references are part of the reason why people love Ted Lasso, and may be sad to know that Season 3 is likely its final fixture. However, there is the potential for spin-offs and other things.
For more exciting Ted Lasso content, try taking this quiz to see which Ted Lasso character you are.