Several major cast members have announced their departure from Saturday Night Live, in what is sure to lead to a major shakeup in the sketch comedy series. Per Deadline, Aidy Bryant (Shrill), Pete Davidson (The King of Staten Island), Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters), and Kyle Mooney (Brigsby Bear) will all take the stage for a final time in tomorrow evening's episode, hosted by Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll). All four have been with the cast for at least eight years and have become true perennials with audiences and the series.
Creator Lorne Michaels had figured that this season would be a "year of change" for the program, and this kind of adjustment certainly adds credence to that claim. It's certainly a bittersweet sentiment; even though the laughs that these four created will be hard to replicate, SNL still has tons of young talent to help keep the series fresh. Those cast members include Bowen Yang (Awkwafina is Nora from Queens), comedian Sarah Sherman, and James Austin Johnson, in addition to the writers behind Please Don't Destroy (Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, and Ben Marshall). Michaels is also sure to promote (and add) several cast members to the series over the summer.
The veteran cast member presence will still be intact, with the likes of Cecily Strong (Schmigadoon!), Kenan Thompson (Kenan & Kel), and Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che staying on. Thompson is notably the show's longest-tenured cast member of all time, initially joining the show as a featured player in 2003. Of the four talents leaving, Davidson spent the least amount of time on SNL with eight years. Both McKinnon and Bryant joined in 2012, while Mooney started his time in 2013. Last season, the only major cast member to leave the series was Beck Bennett.
All four leaving cast members have a number of projects currently airing or in production. McKinnon and Davidson are perhaps slightly more mainstream to audiences, with both appearing in a number of major Hollywood films. McKinnon has had roles in films like Office Christmas Party, Yesterday, and Bombshell. She recently appeared in the Peacock series Joe vs. Carole as the big cat-loving Carole Baskin. Davidson headlined Judd Apatow's 2020 film The King of Staten Island, which was autobiographical for him. He's made lots of headlines lately for his relationship with Kim Kardashian.
Bryant and Mooney have also had their fair share of projects, with the former leading the Hulu series Shrill, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. She recently voiced a main character in Netflix's Big Mouth spinoff, Human Resources. As for Mooney, he both wrote and starred in the film Brigsby Bear. He's also appeared in several comedy shows like Nathan For You, Drunk History, and Arrested Development.