FX/Getty Image
UPDATE: Just a few hours after this story was published, The Bear was officially renewed for a third season.
One of the most amusing subplots of season two of Hulu’s hit series The Bear was Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney taking up an interest in the teachings of iconic former Duke Men’s Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, a.k.a. “Coach K.”
Apparently catching wind that his book Leading with the Heart, which was published back in 2000, was featured in the show, Krzyzewski has his agent send Edebiri a signed copy of the book.
Not only that, but Coach K also expressed an explicit interest in appearing in the series given the inclusion of his book and the fact that Chicago is his hometown.
“I got texts from people saying, ‘Your book is on The Bear.‘ I said, ‘What the hell [is] The Bear?’” Coach K said on recent new episode of Duke’s The Brotherhood Podcast.
“They actually talk about the book. It ends up that the lead lady [Edebiri] is represented by CAA, and so am I. So I just sent her an autographed book of ‘Leading With the Heart,’ and I told my agent, ‘In the future, if they keep going, why don’t I do a cameo? Like go and have a meal maybe.’ It’s in my hometown, Chicago. And it’s a heck of a show.”
While a third season of The Bear has yet to be officially greenlit — its two leads, Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White, have become household names thanks to their performances — the massive, Hulu record-breaking success of season two suggests it’s a matter of when and not if it happens.
The 28-year-old Edebiri has been particularly busy this year, as she featured in five films this year — Theater Camp, Bottoms, The Sweet East, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem — and a bevy of TV shows such as The Bear, Abbott Elementary, History of the World Part II, Mulligan, Clone High, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, and Black Mirror.