Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso is about a folksy American football coach hired to help a stumbling British soccer club, but gadget nerds were buzzing about something else spotted in last Friday’s episode: a potentially notch-free iPhone 13.
The cast of Ted Lasso is frequently seen using Apple products within the show, but eagle-eyed viewers noticed something unusual in a scene where a character whips out her iPhone to check a message. As you can see in the photo above, there was no notch in sight. The back of the phone appears to be an iPhone 12, but the front doesn’t have the distinctive notch we’ve all come to love and respect with no animosity whatsoever. The phone also appears to have the same default wallpaper used in iOS 14.
Apple is notorious for its secrecy, so it seems unlikely that this is a deliberate signal that the notch is disappearing from the iPhone 13. That said, it’s been rumored for months now that the iPhone 13 would have a much smaller notch or a hole-punch selfie camera. However, a completely notchless display isn’t believed to be in the cards for this year’s iPhone. It’s also possible that this was an unintentional goof during the post-editing process. After all, there are several close-up shots of iPhones within the same episode where the notch is visibly present. Though users on Twitter did seem to spot more than one instance of the notchless phone, so who can say?
CGI is actually used quite heavily in Ted Lasso, mostly during scenes where the fictional football club AFC Richmond plays their matches in crowded stadiums. (You can check out a neat video over at The Mary Sue to see how extensive those visual effects shots can be.) Viewers are also convinced in various corners of the internet that Brett Goldstein, the actor who plays the cantankerous Roy Kent, is also somehow a completely CGI character as part of a broader Apple conspiracy. The latter is obviously a bit out there, but given that CGI is a part of the show’s DNA, it’s not entirely implausible that perhaps an editor got a bit too heavy-handed by accident.
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Whether it’s a cheeky nod or a complete gaffe, it’s not as if we’ll have to wait too long to see what the iPhone 13 will look like. The phones are rumored to go on sale on Sept. 17, meaning we should be getting word about an iPhone launch event in the coming weeks.