- SNL head Lorne Michaels confirmed there will be cast changes before season 51.
- At the end of season 50, no cast members announced they’d be exiting the show.
- Bowen Yang previously fielded a question from EW about leaving, which he refused to answer.
Saturday Night Live head Lorne Michaels has confirmed that SNL cast members will exit the show ahead of the upcoming season 51 premiere on NBC.
After no notable cast departures were revealed following the show’s landmark season 50 finale, the 80-year-old TV legend announced in a new interview that the roster will get a big shakeup as season 51 looms.
“Yes,” Michaels told Puck when asked if he’s “going to shake things up” with a new cast.
Will Heath/NBC via Getty
He recalled being at a party for the season 50 premiere, during which he remembered Dana Carvey approaching him and saying, “I don’t think anyone knows you called me June 4 [to play Joe Biden].”
That made him realize he “wanted people coming back and being part of [the 50th season],” as it marked such a monumental moment for the long-running sketch comedy show.
“So, when Kate [McKinnon] hosted, Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it. And that meant there couldn’t be those kind of disruptions [to the cast], or anything that was going to take the focus off [the 50th season],” Michaels continued. “And we had an election.”
The outlet pressed Michaels on feeling “pressure to reinvent this season” ahead, to which he replied, “Yeah, for sure. It’ll be announced in a week or so.”
He additionally confirmed that the show will again rely on actor James Austin Johnson to play Donald Trump for the foreseeable future.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to SNL representatives for comment.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Speaking to EW earlier this year at the opening of the NBCUniversal-owned Universal Epic Universe theme park, current cast member Bowen Yang evaded a question about his potential return for season 51.
“No, we’re not doing that,” Yang told EW with a laugh.
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Still, he did clarify why he looked so emotional during the season 50 finale.
“Every finale at goodnights something leaves my body because I’m just relieved from all that happened in that season and this was a big one. We went through a lot, so many fun memories,” explained Yang. “I think that was probably what was registering. I was just like, ‘Oh, I need to savor these moments before I don’t have them anymore.'”
Watch Yang’s answer in the video above.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/snl-cast-season-50-010725-9489ff02aea246db8f767f0809788707.jpg "Lorne Michaels Teases Major ‘SNL’ Casting News Is Coming ‘in a Week or So’")
