After a landmark 50th season — complete with multiple celebratory events and a slew of Emmy nominations — “Saturday Night Live” is ready for some changes.
NBC announced Tuesday that five new cast members would be joining the storied series for the upcoming 51st season after a handful of individual cast members shared that they would not be returning.
It’s unclear if additional departures will be announced, but creator and producer Lorne Michaels signaled that he was ready for a shake-up of the cast in a recent interview with Puck News.
The newcomers for Season 51 are Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.
Marshall joined the “SNL” writing staff in 2021 and is known for his on-camera appearances as a part of the Please Don’t Destroy comedy trio, alongside John Higgins and Martin Herlihy. Higgins is not returning to the series, and Herlihy will remain on the writing staff, according to a person familiar with the show’s staffing.
Culhane and Slowikowska are each known for their viral comedy content on social media. Slowikowska has appeared in “Tires” and “What We Do in the Shadows,” and Culhane frequently appears on the comedy streaming service Dropout TV and performs with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. Brennan and Patterson are stand-up comedians.
Several cast members have also announced they will not be returning to the series.
Heidi Gardner is exiting the series after eight seasons, a source familiar with the casting changes confirmed, but she has not publicly commented on her departure. She debuted as a featured player in 2017 and became known for playing original characters that were frequent Weekend Update guests, like Angel, Every Boxer’s Girlfriend. She has appeared in over 500 sketches, a milestone that has only been achieved by a handful of “SNL” cast.
Gardner has appeared in both movies and television shows during her time on “SNL,” including 2018’s “Life of the Party” and the ongoing Apple TV+ series “Shrinking.”
Michael Longfellow is also leaving after three seasons in a surprise to fans who speculated his frequent visits to the Weekend Update desk meant he could be tapped to become an anchor of the mock news segment himself.
Longfellow performed both as himself and as characters on Weekend Update — lamenting the REAL ID requirement and the then-looming TikTok ban in his own voice and taking on the roles of Michelangelo’s David and Punxsutawney Phil, among other notable characters and appearances.
Longfellow had reportedly taped a screen test as a Weekend Update co-anchor alongside “SNL” writer KC Shornima, according to the outlet LateNighter. Longfellow described his time on the show as the best three years of his life so far in a post on Instagram confirming his departure.
Devon Walker was the first cast member to share the news that he would not be returning after three seasons on the show. He was in more than 50 episodes, sometimes appearing on Weekend Update with impressions of prominent people like New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Walker announced the news on Instagram, likening jobs in entertainment to marriage. “Some of em last for a long time if we’re lucky, but most of them are fleeting,” he wrote.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” he continued. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f— up lil family.”
Before his time on “SNL,” Walker was a writer on the series “Big Mouth” and “Everything’s Trash.” He has toured clubs, colleges and festivals throughout the country as a stand-up comedian, and he hosts the music and comedy podcast “My Favorite Lyrics With Devon Walker.”
Featured player Emil Wakim is also not returning to the cast after joining for Season 50. “It was a gut punch of a call to get but i’m so grateful for my time there,” Wakim wrote Wednesday on Instagram in a post announcing the news.
While Wakim was only on the show for one season, he made some memorable visits to the Weekend Update desk where he delivered topical monologues. The stand-up comedian also appeared in the season finale’s cold open with James Austin Johnson as Trump where he played the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
Writers Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker also announced they would not be returning to the show.
It’s not the first time “SNL” has introduced major shakeups to its cast, something that has been met with criticism in the past from “SNL” cast members and viewers alike — Season 11 is often cited as the “weird year,” when Michaels made sweeping changes to the lineup of players. It was even the subject of the fourth episode of “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” the Peacock docuseries about the show’s history. In the past few years, the show has made an effort to be more inclusive, adding Bowen Yang as its first Chinese American cast member; Molly Kearney, the first nonbinary cast member; and Punkie Johnson, the first openly queer Black woman on the cast — though the latter two only lasted a few seasons.
The 51st season of “Saturday Night Live” premieres Oct. 4.
