SNL Drops One Cast Member, Adds Three More for 50th Season

Saturday Night Live is heading toward its 50th season this September but will be missing one cast member and introducing a few unfamiliar faces. The revolving door at SNL keeps turning, and Chloe Troast, who joined the program in 2023 during the last season as the only new featured player, exits the long-running comedy show. In her place, three new cast members join SNL: Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline.

NBC announced the September 28 release date for the next season along with the announcement Chloe Troast would exit the series while three new members would join. Up-and-coming comedians Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline joined the cast after Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney also exited the show earlier this year. Meanwhile, Troast was featured in a number of viral SNL skits, including one titled “Little Orphan Cassidy” with guest star Timothée Chalamet. She posted an Instagram story revealing she was not asked to return for the 50th season, despite her desire to stay on the iconic comedy show.

“Unfortunately I was not asked back to
SNL
this season. 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.”

SNL Is Getting A Movie About its Origins

Just in time for the 50th anniversary, Saturday Night Live is getting a movie about the true story of its origin from Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman, aptly titled Saturday Night. The film follows the early days of the comedy program as it tries to air its first episode on October 11, 1975. It’s a chaotic, stress-inducing night for the crew as things go from bad to worse right before their big moment, as the trailer teases. Saturday Night stars Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner and Matt Wood as John Belushi.

Although the film is a love letter to Saturday Night Live, not everyone is embracing the serious nature of the project the same way. Former SNL writer John Mulaney roasted the movie while on Late Night with Seth Meyers, sarcastically stating “Now, I worked for five years at Saturday Night Live, but I had no idea the kind of pressure cooker that it was. Apparently, it’s high stakes.” It was clearly said in jest, but Mulaney even went as far as writing a fake script for the movie and reading it out loud to a laughing audience. Of course, Mulaney still made sure to say he was “very excited” about Saturday Night.

The official synopsis for Saturday Night is as follows:

At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…