Lorne Michaels says ‘Saturday Night Live’ season 51 will have cast changes

Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels says the upcoming season 51 premiere of the late-night comedy series will come with changes.

No notable cast members announced their departures from the show after the season 50 finale. But in a new interview with Puck, Michaels was asked if he was going to shake things up with a new cast for season 51.

“Yes,” Michaels said, before describing how he wanted former cast members to come back and be part of the 50th season, as it marked such a monumental moment for the show.

“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 said. “And we had an election.”

The producer was also asked if he feels pressured to reinvent SNL for this upcoming season.

“Yeah, for sure. It’ll be announced in a week or so,” Michaels said.

One cast member who won’t be leaving is James Austin Johnson. Michaels confirmed Johnson will play Donald Trump on the program for the foreseeable future.

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