“SNL” adds Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim & Jane Wickline as Chloe Troast departs

The departures of Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney, and Troast have finally been filled ahead of the show's historic season 50 premiere.

Saturday Night Live has finally filled out its cast after several departures ahead of the historic season 50 premiere.

Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline are set to join the cast, while Chloe Troast, who joined the cast in 2023 as a featured player, will not be returning. Troast's season 49 featured comrades, Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker, are all being promoted to the main cast.

"Unfortunately I was not asked back to SNL this season," Troast wrote in a Sept. 9 Instagram post. "I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there. It truly felt like home. But it wasn't in the cards."

The announcement is the latest in a hectic string of cast shake-ups, which also saw Molly Kearney and Punkie Johnson leave after two and four seasons on the show, respectively. Kearney has kept their reasons for departure ambiguous, but Johnson recently revealed to SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade why she's moving on: "I never grew up in sketch, I never went to a sketch school, I didn't really feel like I fit, like that was my zone," she said. "That show is for a different type of person."

The rest of season 49's featured players will be returning, including Michael Che, Mikey Day, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, and Sarah Sherman. Maya Rudolph is set to reprise her Emmy-winning Kamala Harris impersonation throughout election season.

Padilla comes from the Groundlings, the legendary L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe which has trained a staggering amount of future SNL cast members, including Laraine Newman, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Mikey Day, and current cast member Heidi Gardner.

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Wakim becomes the series' first Lebanese-American castmember. The comedian's big break came on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and he's already a veteran of the stand-up circuit, opening for marquee names like Nikki Glaser and Hasan Minhaj.

Wickline makes a kind of history of her own, becoming the first TikTok superstar to make the transition from the swipe screen to the small screen. Wickline has amassed nearly one million followers on the platform and boasts over 45M likes on her page as one of the breakout stars of the live show Stapleview.

Related: SNL alum Victoria Jackson reflects on death amid inoperable tumor diagnosis: 'I'm so blessed to have had a long life'

SNL's 50th season will be a season unlike any other. NBC has announced a special season 50 kickoff event featuring a weekend of commemorative programs culminating in a three-hour live primetime special to air Sunday, Feb. 16.

Saturday Night Live season 50 premieres Sept. 28 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.