With the fall of the 2025 TV schedule quickly approaching, it was only a matter of time before updates about the Saturday Night Live Season 51 cast started to roll in. In fact, SNL boss Lorne Michaels recently warned that news was coming, and longtime star Kenan Thompson previewed in the wake of Season 50 that changes were on the way to the show. Now, the first cast cut has been confirmed: Devon Walker will not return for Season 51.
Devon Walker joined Saturday Night Live as a featured player in 2022, then landed the promotion to repertory cast member in time for the 50th anniversary season last year. He announced his departure on Instagram with the understated caption of "me and baby broke up ❤️." The actor went more in-depth on one of the slides, writing:
To me, jobs in this industry feel like a bunch of little marriages. Some of ‘em last for a long time if we’re lucky, but most of them are fleeting. Permanent until they’re not. That’s the deal. You know what it is when you sign up. Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a fucked up lil family.
Friends and colleagues wasted no time in responding in his comment section, with former SNL costar Chloe Fineman writing "I’ll miss being your pregnant wife all the time!!!!!" and writer Jimmy Fowlie expressing "i love you forever!" Abbott Elementary's Zack Fox expressed himself via emojis with this message: "🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽 🚀 🚀🚀." Apple TV+'s Loot cast member Ron Funches added his two cents, writing "Onward and upwards. Congratulations on the great work."
The silver lining to the bad news comes via what Devon Walker clarified on his Instagram Story shortly after the news broke. He wrote [Edited for clarity]:
Just to be clear, this is good news!! It was just time for me to do something different. Please don't be hitting me with the 'I'm so sorry.' We're not on that at all. Sometimes mom and dad just don't see things eye to eye.
Walker made it clear that he wasn't axed from Saturday Night Live with bad blood behind him, and that may soften the blow of his exit for fans. It sounds like he was ready to go in some new directions in his career, including the My Favorite Lyrics podcast that he hosts. He promised to talk about "the whole thing" on the podcast "sometime soon." As for his full message about leaving SNL and the photos he chose to commemorate his time there, take a look:
Devon Walker joined SNL as part of the Season 48 cast, as one of four newcomers alongside Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Michael Hernandez. Kearney announced their departure ahead of Season 50, while Longfellow and Hernandez were still part of the cast as of the Season 50 finale. Hernandez became a fan favorite in late 2024 as Domingo in Ariana Grande's viral "Bridesmaid Speech" sketch.
According to the Saturday Night Live Network (via Deadline), Walker had the least screentime among cast members in Season 50. He's likely only the first of multiple cast departures who will be announced in the coming days and weeks. If you want to revisit any of his standout sketches over his years on SNL, you can find every season of the series so far streaming with a Peacock subscription now.
Season 51 of Saturday Night Live will premiere on Saturday, October 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET. It remains to be seen if other cast departures will be more of the newer stars like Devon Walker, in just his third year at the show. Lorne Michaels did confirm that James Austin Johnson will be back to continue his scary accurate impersonation of President Donald Trump. I also feel comfortable saying that Kenan Thompson at least won't be leaving Saturday Night Live until he's good and ready, but only time will tell.
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