Should the next season of ‘Succession’ be about Lorne Michaels’ replacement?

What is Saturday Night Live without its Canadian creator, 20-time Emmy-winner, and recent Kennedy Center honoree, Lorne Michaels? Well, it seems like we may all find out sooner rather than later. In a new interview with CBS Mornings, the 77-year-old executive producer revealed that he may finally be ready to leave the show he started all those years ago after it hits its milestone 50th anniversary in three years. “Well, I think I'm committed to doing the show until its 50th anniversary, which is in three years. I'd like to see that through," Michaels told the outlet. "And I feel like that would be a really good time to leave.”

He also added that of course the show could carry on without him, but he’s going to do everything he can to make sure that he’s leaving it in good hands. Whose hands, however, he wouldn’t say. "Here's the point, I won't want the show ever to be bad. I care too deeply about it, it's been my life's work. So, I'm going to do everything I can to see it carry on and carry on well," Michaels added.

The internet had some thoughts though, and some of them revolved around how SNL could play into the next season of Succession. Because hey—if the Roy family can duke it out amongst themselves for control of a media company, why can’t some Hollywood MVPs put their skills to the test to lead the next generation of SNL?

Okay so Succession: SNL probably won’t happen, but can’t you just imagine Pete Davidson stepping in for Roman and becoming the person to carry on the flirtatious/inappropriate relationship with Gerri’? Or Seth Meyers stepping into Connor's shoes as the eldest son?

Other fans took the idea of a possible replacement a little more seriously by nominating personalities like Tina Fey or Kenan Thompson, which makes sense if you think about it. 30 Rock alum Fey has certainly proved she knows how to run a show (in both the meta and physical sense), while Thompson is the longest-starring SNL cast member at 18 years and counting.

Fans have long hoped for a Fey-Thompson takeover, though. And that conversation sparked up again this past weekend when they teamed with Tom Hanks, Paul Rudd and Michael Che for the strangest, most minimalist episode of the show to date after production scaled back at the last minute because of COVID.

While fans are always going to have favourites, it’s worth noting that Lorne doesn’t often appear onscreen and mostly stays behind-the-scenes, running things. So whoever does take over will probably have a writing and business background.

That makes it more likely that a current producer or perhaps even a writer may make the transition. For those keeping track, that actually puts Colin Jost, who has been one of the show’s head writer since 2017 (and a writer since 2005) in the running.

Other famous past head writers include Fey, Seth Meyers and Che. Michaels started Saturday Night Live in 1975 with a first-season cast that included comedic legends Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Bill Murray.

Since then Michaels has overseen many, many, many versions of the cast, always choosing talent with a discerning eye that he’ll probably use in selecting his eventual replacement.

"You can't put anyone in the cast that you don't have complete faith in,” he said during the CBS interview. “You may not know how it'll turn out, but you want that decision to have been pure of heart.”

BEFORE YOU GO: Andrew Garfield was obsessed with 'Hamilton' before Lin-Manuel Miranda asked him to star in 'tick, tick... Boom!'

[video_embed id='2333939']BEFORE YOU GO: Andrew Garfield was obsessed with 'Hamilton' before Lin-Manuel Miranda asked him to star in 'tick, tick... Boom!' [/video_embed]