Lorne Michaels Teases More SNL Alum Cameos Ahead of Election

Maya Rudolph isn’t the only Saturday Night Live alum who will be participating in the show’s election-themed sketches when it returns for its 50th season on September 28th.

That’s according to Lorne Michaels, who’s teasing more homecomings on the horizon. 

“I want to celebrate this season with people coming back who’ve been part of the show and who love the show,” Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview. “Not so much as hosts but just making appearances.”

As Michaels pointed out, the busy news cycle of the 2024 election is the perfect excuse for those cameos. “The election is a chance for that because that’s five or six shows. So, Maya and some others coming back for the election will be fun for everybody,” he teased. 

The show confirmed in August that former cast member Rudoph will once again be playing Kamala Harris this fall. 

One of the other names that cropped up over the  summer among speculating fans and journalists was Steve Martin, who bears something of a resemblance to Harris’ running mate Tim Walz. Martin, however, declined the part when Michaels offered it—but that doesn’t mean viewers won’t see him in Studio 8H this year. 

“Steve and I have been very good friends for longer than you’ve been alive, and it’s not the thing he does,” Michaels said. “But there’s lots that he does that you’ll be seeing.”

Michaels declined to reveal who will be playing the election’s other main characters, saying only, “I think we have the people to play [the candidates] and it should be fun.” In recent years, the candidate roles have largely been assigned to special guest stars like Rudolph, Alec Baldwin, and Jim Carrey—and it doesn’t sound like that’s changing going forward. 

“If you’re someone in the cast who’s like, ‘I have a better impression than that person coming in,’ it’s probably frustrating,” SNL‘s Colin Jost told THR of the trend. “But it’s sort of the reality of our show.”