SNL replaces three fired cast members with Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline

Big changes are coming for Saturday Night Livewhich has now cut three comedians from its cast and added three new additions for the historic 50th season, which premieres on September 28.

Three new comedians – Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline – have been added to the show as supporting cast members. At the same time, three existing supporting actors – Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker – will be promoted to the main cast, while a fourth, Chloe Troast, will be leaving the show after just one season.

Supporting actors are considered main cast members starting in the third season – however, many do not make it past the first or second. Troast revealed on Instagram that she was not asked to return for the show's 50th season: “I wish I could go back to be with all the amazing friends I made there. It really did feel like home. But that was not a given,” she wrote.

In addition to Troast, cast members Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney were also asked not to return for season 50. While Kearney, the show's first nonbinary cast member, said she was “so grateful” for her time on the show, Johnson expressed that while there were “no hard feelings” about her exit, she “didn't really feel like I belonged,” so leaving the show was “an amicable thing.”

The new faces joining the show in the upcoming season come from a variety of comedy backgrounds. Ashley Padilla, a member of the sketch troupe Groundlings, has appeared on Curb your enthusiasm and NBC's Night Court.

Jane Wickline, a TikToker with quite a large following, often plays various characters in her own sketch videos and as part of the TikTok comedy show Stapleview.

And stand-up comedian Emil Wakim opened for Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser and Hasan Minhaj and made his TV debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2022. His material also touches a bit on Israel and Palestine, and the Lebanese-American comedian jokes that he “looks like both sides” of the conflict.

SNL returns later this month, just in time to cover the final weeks of the presidential campaign. While Maya Rudolph will reprise her role as Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson will likely continue his impersonation of Donald Trump, it's not yet clear who will play their vice presidential candidates JD Vance or Tim Walz. Steve Martin, who was immediately suggested by fans due to his resemblance to the Minnesota governor, publicly turned down the role because, as he put it, he is “not an impersonator.”

The Daily Beast suggested Paul Giamatti, Lewis Black and Danny DeVito as possible options for Walz, and Aidy Bryant, Taran Killam and Zach Galifianakis were some options for Vance. The Ohio senator seems to be a coveted role for comedian Tim Heidecker, who made an audition video as Vance (complete with heavy eyeliner) to audition for the role.