The First ‘Saturday Night’ Trailer Is...Pretty Tense!
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The first thing you need to know about the upcoming Saturday Night Live movie is that it’s not a comedy. “It’s a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre,” director Jason Reitman (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) told Vanity Fair. “I always describe this movie as a shuttle launch, and the question was ‘Would they break orbit?’ ” Titled Saturday Night, the film follows a group of young comedians in 1975 who attempt to produce the first-ever broadcast of the live sketch-comedy show. Spoiler alert: They broke orbit.
SNL became one of the most prestigious comedy shows in America, launching the careers of Robert Downey Jr. (who just shocked Marvel fans to the core), Eddie Murphy, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, and, of course, the Sandman. Now creator Lorne Michaels is preparing the show’s fiftieth season—but how did we get here? Well, Saturday Night will explore the hours leading up to the very first episode. According to the filmmakers, the movie plays out in real time over the course of ninety minutes.
In the first trailer for the film, the chaos is certainly evident. As NBC vice president David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) breathes down SNL head Lorne Michaels’s (Gabriel LaBelle) neck, Muppets creator Jim Henson (Succession’s Nicholas Braun) complains about how the writers “tied a belt around Big Bird’s neck and hung him.” Meanwhile, NBC exec Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) tries to convince Michaels that it’s all riding on the big night. “They want you to fail,” he says. “Did you ever stop and wonder why they said yes?”
Reitman and his co-writer, Gil Kenan, reportedly adapted the screenplay from a series of interviews they conducted with the cast members, writers, and crew members who put together the premiere. “We interviewed everyone we could find that was alive from opening night,” Reitman said. “Every living cast member, every living writer, people from the art department, costumes, hair and makeup, NBC pages, members of Billy Preston’s band—I mean, anyone we could find.” The result (we hope!) should be a brilliant retelling of SNL’s origin story, brought to life by a new generation of talent. Keep reading for everything we know about the film so far.
What Is Saturday Night About?
Saturday Night tracks the chaotic hours before the first episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring the talented writers and comedians who, despite the odds, managed to pull the show together.
“The whole movie is the story of people trying to figure out what their identity is on the show,” Reitman revealed. “The story we tell is the moment each of these comedians find the way they coalesce as a group, which I think is the reason the show eventually was the success that it is.” Naturally, the film will also count down to the opening line. You know it by heart: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
Who Is in the Movie?
The stacked cast includes Dylan O’Brien (Ponyboi) as SNL star Dan Aykroyd, Braun as both Henson and comedian Andy Kaufman, and Lamorne Morris (New Girl) as SNL’s first Black cast member, Garrett Morris. LaBelle (Snack Shack) earned the honor of playing Michaels, while Cory Michael Smith (Gotham) portrays the legendary Chevy Chase. That’s not all. There’s also Rachel Sennott (Bottoms) as SNL writer Rosie Shusterand Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) as an NBC page.
You’re surely asking: Where’s Bill Murray? Since he didn’t join the cast until 1977, he may not appear in this film. But that didn’t stop the actor from suggesting a few options for young Bill Murray, if we ever see him onscreen. “I like Kenan Thompson—he could play me. Or Bill Hader, those two,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire premiere. “Or Kristen Wiig, any of those three. Or Amy Poehler.” Oh, Bill.
According to LaBelle, he used bits of SNL lore to conjure his interpretation of a young, anxious Michaels. "Everyone sees him as this fearless leader, this captain who’s steering the ship in the fog,” LaBelle told Vanity Fair. But SNL wasn’t always such a clean operation. “Murray, when he came back to host the show 15 or 20 years after he left, said to Lorne, ‘Wow, you really figured out how to do this,’ ” LaBelle said. “He started it when he was 30. He’s now 80 and has been doing it for 50 years. Nobody knows what to do when they first start.”
You Mentioned Set Photos?
Yes, we did, and they’re pure gold. Photographers captured LaBelle’s Michaels, Braun’s Henson, and Wolfhard’s NBC page trolling around the general vicinity of 30 Rock. You can see the whole batch of pictures here, but we’ll leave you with a smattering. It includes but certainly isn’t limited to: Cousin Greg carrying around a mysterious oversized suitcase, LaBelle looking seventies as heck, and a prop that teases the George Carlin–hosted SNL premiere. Enjoy!
When Will Saturday Night Hit Theaters?
It premieres on October 11, 2024—the same night that SNL’s first episode debuted nearly fifty years ago.
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