It’s only live television. What could go wrong? For Lorne Michaels, literally everything. The latest trailer for Sony’s Saturday Night chronicles the chaotic first episode of Saturday Night Live.
October 11, 1975. It’s 10 p.m. ET, and Saturday Night Live will air its first show in 90 minutes. Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is scrambling to put the finishing touches on his sketch show. To say things get chaotic would be an understatement. The set falls apart, the cast disappears, and the crew rebels against Michaels. NBC executive Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) believes the network wants the show to fail.
“There’s never been a show like this,” Michaels confidently says despite the ensuing chaos in every direction.
Saturday Night Live’s season 1 cast is prominently featured in the trailer. They include Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Tommy Dewey as Michael O’Donoghue, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, and Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd.
Saturday Night’s ensemble also stars Rachel Sennott, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Rhys, Andrew Barth Feldman, Naomi McPherson, Kaia Gerber, Jon Batiste, Finn Wolfhard, J.K. Simmons, and Willem Dafoe.
Jason Reitman directs Saturday Night, on a screenplay he co-wrote with Gil Kenan. Saturday Night is Reitman’s first non-Ghostbusters feature film since The Front Runner. Saturday Night premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2024. The buzzworthy film played to a raucous crowd, with many pundits predicting Saturday Night could be a factor in the awards season race.
Saturday Night will open in select theaters on September 27, 2024, one day before Saturday Night Live’s season 50 premiere. It will expand to more theaters on October 4 before opening nationwide on October 11.
