Big changes are on the horizon for Saturday Night Live, which has now axed three comedians from its cast and added three newcomers for the historic 50th season premiering on September 28.
Three new comedians—Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline— have been added to the show as featured players. At the same time, three existing featured players—Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker—are being promoted to the main cast, while a fourth, Chloe Troast, will not be returning after just one season on the show.
Featured players are considered main cast once they reach their third season—but many do not make it past their first or second. Troast announced that she was not asked back to the show for the 50th season on Instagram: “I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn’t in the cards,” she wrote.
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In addition to Troast, cast members Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney were also asked not to return for the 50th season. While Kearney, the show’s first nonbinary cast member, shared that they were “so grateful” for their time on the show, Johnson expressed that even though there were “no hard feelings” regarding her exit, she “didn't really feel like I fit,” so parting ways with the show was “a mutual thing.”
As for the fresh faces joining the show in the upcoming season, they come from a wide variety of comedy backgrounds. Ashley Padilla, a member of the Groundlings sketch troupe, has made appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and NBC’s Night Court.
Jane Wickline, a Tiktoker with a pretty substantial following, often plays different characters in her own sketch videos and as part of the TikTok comedy show Stapleview.
@stapleview Reply to @_mo0n_f4iry_ ♬ original sound - STAPLEVIEW
And stand-up comedian Emil Wakim has opened for Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser, and Hasan Minhaj and made his TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022. His material includes a bit about Israel and Palestine, as the Lebanese-American comedian jokes he “looks like both sides” of the conflict.
SNL returns later this month, just in time to cover the final weeks of the race for president. While Maya Rudolph is set to reprise her role as Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson is likely to continue his impression of Donald Trump, it's not yet clear who will play their VP picks J.D. Vance or Tim Walz. Steve Martin, an instant fan suggestion due to his resemblance to the Minnesota governor, publicly turned down the role since, as he put it, “I’m not an impressionist.”
The Daily Beast suggested Paul Giamatti, Lewis Black, and Danny DeVito as possible options play Walz, and Aidy Bryant, Taran Killam, and Zach Galifianakis as a few choices for Vance. The Ohio senator seems to be a coveted role for comedian Tim Heidecker, who made an audition tape as Vance (complete with significant eye liner) to put his hat in the ring for that role.
