Ted Lasso has returned to Apple TV for a fourth season after seemingly wrapping up for good in 2023, and eagle-eyed fans have spotted a small but notable detail in the premiere: a pack of Red Apple cigarettes visible while Ted works at a grocery store checkout. The fictional cigarette brand was created by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and has featured across several of his films, meaning its appearance in Ted Lasso appears to be a deliberate nod linking the two otherwise very different fictional worlds.

In the Season 4 opener, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is shown back in Kansas City three years after leaving England, now working as an assistant grocery store manager while raising his son. Red Apple cigarettes first appeared in 1994's Pulp Fiction and have since turned up in Kill Bill: Volume 1, Death Proof, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino has previously suggested that some of his films share a common "real universe", fuelling speculation that the reference hints Ted Lasso now exists within that same shared fictional space, alongside separate fan theories pointing to recurring Wizard of Oz allusions in the show.