Lorne Michaels Teases ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Shake-Up Ahead Of Season 51

Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels confirmed the cast will be seeing some major changes in Season 51.

Speaking to Puck, Michaels was expectedly tight-lipped about what fans should expect when the NBC comedy show returns in October. But when asked if he was “going to shake things up” with the cast this coming season, Michaels confirmed that some changes will be made.

He also admitted to feeling some “pressure to reinvent this season” after the show celebrated its 50th anniversary with a star-studded celebration.

 “Yeah, for sure,” he said, adding that any changes made will “be announced in a week or so.”

Michaels explained that having former Saturday Night Live alum Dana Carvey return to play Joe Biden this season made him realize he “wanted people coming back and being part of” the 50th season.

He added that the show held off from announcing the casting changes to keep the focus on the 50th season celebration.

“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.”

However, Michaels did confirm that James Austin Johnson will be returning to continue playing President Donald Trump.

There has been some speculation about who will be leaving the cast ahead of Season 51.

Fans on social media have wondered if this could be the end of Colin Jost‘s time on the show. Jost has been on the show since 2005 when he began as a writer before he joined the cast in 2014. Outside of SNL, Jost also hosts Pop Culture Jeopardy! There has also been speculation that Bowen Yang may be leaving, as well.

But Michael Che reportedly talked about leaving the show during a standup performance at the University of Rochester in February. “This is my last season. I’m not coming back, don’t worry. I’m done, it’s over for me. It’s been so much fun. It’s a little emotional, it’s bittersweet,” he said, per the Campus Times. 

Deadline reported that new submissions took place earlier this summer. While it remains to be seen what changes will be coming to the cast, Michaels said he’s not the only one weighing in on the decision.

“More people are involved in the choices and in the decisions,” he told Puck. “There’s a lot of people in that room with a lot of opinions. I make the final decision, obviously. But it’s not as if people don’t let me know how strongly they feel.”

Saturday Night Live will return with a brand new season Oct. 18.