Saturday Night Live Origin Movie Finds Major Cast Members

Summary

• Cory Michael Smith will play Chevy Chase in Jason Reitman’s SNL 1975.
• Dylan O’Brien, Matt Wood and Lamorne Morris also join the origin film as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Garrett Morris, respectively.
• Chase was SNL’s standout star, but he only stayed on the sketch-comedy show for a little over a year.

Now, Cory Michael Smith can officially say, “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not.” Jason Reitman’s upcoming SNL 1975 film has cast four more of the real-life characters who made the first season of Saturday Night Live so incredibly special. In a brand-new exclusive released by Deadline, the highly coveted role of Chevy Chase has been won by 37-year-old Smith. Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Garrett Morris will be played respectively by Dylan O’Brien, Matt Wood and Lamorne Morris.

In addition to directing SNL 1975, Reitman also serves as the co-writer of the project along with Gil Kenan (A Boy Called Christmas, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire). The screenplay came together thanks to interviews conducted with the cast and crew of the show that introduced “The Not Ready for Primetime Players” to the annals of television history.

The key cast members of SNL’s unforgettable first season include Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtain, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner and Garrett Morris. Last Friday (January 26), Deadline also announced that Ella Hunt will play Radner, Kim Matula is portraying Curtain, and Emily Farin was hired to take on Newman.

Related The 15 Greatest SNL Sketches of All Time (with Videos), Ranked Saturday Night Live has had countless funny, pants-wetting sketches over the last 49 seasons, making it one of the longest-running shows on TV. 

SNL 1975 Takes Shape

NBC

Jason Reitman’s SNL 1975 origin movie has cast “The Not Ready for Primetime Players,” and Saturday Night Live creator, Lorne Michaels, will be played by 21-year-old Gabriel LaBelle (The Predator, The Fabelmans, American Gigolo). Additionally, Cooper Hoffman and Rachel Sennott have been cast to play the supporting parts of Dick Ebersol and Rosie Shuster, respectively.

Ebersol was NBC’s Director of Weekend Late Night Programming, at the time of SNL’s conception, while Shuster was a prolific writer. Shuster’s work not only includes working with The Not Ready for Primetime Players, but she also collaborated with the likes of Eddie Murphy and Dana Carvey in the 1980s.

The sketch-comedy series and SNL’s legendary characters debuted in October of 1975, and Chevy Chase was clearly the show’s standout star. Hollywood beckoned, though, so Chase only participated on Saturday Night Live for a little over a year. Bill Murray was hired to join the cast after Chase’s departure, which gave birth to a rivalry between the two Hollywood icons.

Be sure and check out the real-life Chase’s interview on The Howard Stern Show (below) to learn more about the complicated relationship between Murray and Chase, which actually led to a fist fight between the two creative geniuses.

At the time of this writing, there is not an expected release date for SNL 1975.

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