‘SNL’ Adds Four Mystery Cast Members to Season 48, Lorne Michaels Hints at More to Come

By Greta Bjornson @greatbjornson
Published Sep. 13, 2022, 2:26 p.m. ET

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As Saturday Night Live prepares for a major overhaul in Season 48, longtime producer Lorne Michaels is teasing what fans can expect when the cast and crew returns to Studio 8H this fall. SNL, which won Outstanding Variety Series for the sixth year in a row at the 2022 Emmy Awards, lost seven cast members after the Season 47 finale.

But according to Michaels, the show has been hard at work finding fresh, funny faces to fill the gaps.

“This will be a transition year, and the change years are always difficult but also really exciting because there’s new people and things are changing and a different generation comes into the show,” Michaels said in the Emmys press room on Monday (Sept. 12), per Entertainment Weekly.

He said, “There are four new people,” while declining to name names, before adding, “At least for now.”

Michaels’ little SNL tease comes after he said fans can expect a “clean slate” on the show in its upcoming season, per Deadline. Four key cast members announced their departures from the sketch comedy series in May when Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson all shared they were leaving, but the show took another hit in late summer with the confirmation of three more comedians’ SNL exits.

Veterans Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor were revealed to be leaving ahead of Season 48, along with Aristotle Athari, who just made his SNL debut last season.

With all of the changes at SNL, some cast members are sticking around. We can expect to see more of Heidi Gardner, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, James Austin, Punkie Johnson, Bowen Yang, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Sarah Sherman and Cecily Strong, plus SNL‘s longest-running cast member, Kenan Thompson.

We’ll have to wait until the SNL Season 48 premiere to see the full cast, though, but luckily, it’s not too far off. NBC announced yesterday that SNL will return with new episodes starting Oct. 1, and will air subsequent weekly shows Oct. 8 and Oct. 15. The network kept mum about musical guests or hosts, but we can expect announcements in the coming weeks.