Getty Adam Sandler is hosting the May 4 episode of Saturday Night Live, despite claiming in the past that he never had any interest in hosting the show.
Adam Sandler is returning to Studio 8H next week to host Saturday Night Live, marking his first time ever hosting the show that helped launch Sandler’s career and first made him a household name back in 1990.
“We are happy to welcome Adam back to ‘SNL’ in what is sure to be a special night,” executive producer Lorne Michaels said in a statement. Sandler is responsible for creating a slew of popular characters and skits on the show, including “The Chanukah Song” and “Opera Man.”
Sandler will be joined by musical guest Shawn Mendes during the May 4 episode, and with it being “May the 4th Be With You,” we can likely look forward to a few Star Wars jokes and skits throughout the evening.
Sandler’s SNL return is a surprise considering he has long said he has no interest in hosting the show, telling fellow SNL vet Norm Macdonald, “Why should I? There are guys who love doing it, who are great at doing it. I just don’t know how good I’d be doing it. I did what I could do on that show.”
Sandler joined the show in 1990 as a writer and was a member of the SNL cast from 1991-1995. However, he and fellow comedian Chris Farley were both fired from the show back in 1995.
“Yes, we were [fired],” Sandler told the Daily Beast. “We kind of quit at the same time as being fired. It was the end of the run for us. The fact that me and him got fired? Who knows. We were on it for a few years, had our run, and everything happens for a reason. We kind of understood because we did our thing. It hurt a lot at the time because we were young and didn’t know where we were going, but it all worked out.”
He continued: “I miss Farley,” he says. “He was a tour de force on the show and dominated. He could dominate anybody. There’s nobody that can walk into a room and take over better than Farley. I haven’t seen anyone since he’s gone that’s taken that spot. He’s the strongest presence I’ve ever seen.”
Although he was let go from SNL, Sandler has made various cameo appearances since, and performed an SNL short with Andy Samberg for the 40th Anniversary Special back in 2015.
Tonight’s episode of SNL will feature a rerun episode from early April featuring Kit Harington and musical guest Sara Bareilles. Harrington recently appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss his SNL debut, telling Meyers that he had to shave his beard in order to play in two of the skits in the episode. “They [shaved] me,” he revealed. “There were various reasons I was clean-shaven. I had to play Michael Jackson and Winston Churchill. That’s a sentence I’ll never say again… It’s the first time I’ve had a reason to shave in a long time.”
He also mentioned that he made a mistake telling the showrunners that he had no talents to showcase, and that he was open for whatever they wanted him to do.
“Anyone who’s gonna host SNL don’t do what I did, which is, when they ask you, ‘What kind of things do you want to do? Do you have any talents? Do you have any things that you want to show off?’ I thought, ‘I have zero talents.’ So I said, ‘I’ll do anything you want me to do,” he said. “Any skit that you have. Anything that you’ve been holding back that you think is too controversial. I’ll do it.’ And they really took me at my word.”
Tune in on May 4, 2019 to catch the newest episode of SNL at 11:30/10:30c, featuring Adam Sandler and Shawn Mendes.
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