EXCLUSIVE: It’s that time in the comedy calendar when SNL begins taking major focus, with casting for the next season shaping up.

Up to this point, all that’s been announced for Season 52 is Chloe Fineman‘s exit after seven seasons as she shifts focus toward acting and other opportunities. But Tuesday, the SNL team wrapped their fifth and final showcase, with an eye out for talent for the upcoming fall season.

As is customary, staffers hit three big markets: Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Flying under the radar as the “Characters Showcase,” the first took place in L.A. on August 6th. Chicago showcases took place at Annoyance Theatre and The iO Theater on the 10th and 11th, respectively. Last but not least, there were the NY showcases, which we’re told took place at UCB on the 17th and 18th. 

So who were the standouts? Names that emerged from L.A. included Trent Mason, Kaba Hues, Chase Rosenberg, and April Rock.

Peyton Ruddy, a 2026 JFL New Face, “dominated” in Chicago, per our sources. Meanwhile, everyone in New York was said to be “raving” about Joey Welsh. Other New York talents highlighted included Allisha Edwards, Amber Singletary, and Saidah Belo-Osagie, to name a few.

As far as big-picture thoughts behind the scenes, the sense is that there’s been a desire to to address the cast’s lack of Black female representation since Ego Nwodim’s departure in 2025 after seven seasons.

Something that’s been widely discussed among reps since last year, this seems to be reflected by the standouts our sources shared with us: Hues, Rock, Edwards, Singletary, and Belo-Osagie are all female performers of color.

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Other names that caught our eye out of the showcases included Ismael Loutfi, who made our list of Stand-Ups to Keep an Eye on in 2026, as well as Ethan Edenburg, Eric Jackowitz, and Tom McGovern — the three members of well known comedy rock band Wolves of Glendale.)

Next up in the casting process: Screen tests — we’re told that as of the last hour, calls to talent advancing to the next stage have begun going out.

Sources cautioned that our lists below should be taken with a grain of salt: there’s always a chance of omissions, and even a comedian who didn’t showcase may be asked to test. Also of note is the fact that two names — Leo Gonzalez and Megan Ramsey — came up on lists for both Chicago and New York, for reasons that remain unclear.

Reps for SNL didn’t respond to requests for comment. We’ll chronicle further developments as they happen.

Spoiler warning: This podcast and write-up contains details about the final episode of Apple TV’s Lucky.

Apple TV’s limited series Lucky just dropped its final episode and the series creator Jonathan Tropper is here with us today to explain just why the nefarious queen-pin, Priscilla (Annette Bening, let Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her father (Timothy Olyphant) go. This after a pursuit for $10M that Lucky’s ex-husband/Priscilla’s son absconded with (and which Lucky and papa had access to in the end). Granted, Priscilla’s husband, Wayne (William Fichtner), was the catalyst for this chase.

Tropper unpacks all here:

But even more fun, we talk with Tropper about landing the screenwriting gig for next summer’s original Star Wars universe film, Starfighter, which we just caught a glimpse of at D23.

“I was fortunate to have done three movies before with Shawn Levy. They approached Shawn and said we want you to do a Star Wars movie, and you can pick your writer,” said Tropper, “And I landed the gig.”

At the time that Levy and Tropper made their deals, they didn’t know exactly what Starfighter would be.

In Star Wars: Starfighter, Ryan Gosling, plays cynical rogue Kade Auberon. He’s confronted by his mysterious past and is hurled into a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a crash course with destiny. Along for the ride with Kade, is a precocious child played by Flynn Gray. The title starship is a G17 Imperial Reaper, the fastest ever built. It just so happens to be in Kade’s garage.

“What we wanted to do was to tell a story that was free of (Star Wars) mythology. We were out ahead in the timeline, and we wanted something with as few barriers of entry as possible for new fans and viewers,” says Tropper.

“This isn’t a Skywalker saga movie… we’re not dealing with the history of the Rebellion, the First Order, the Resistance or the Empire, we’re kind of beyond all that” he says, “It’s a simpler movie.”

While Tropper, of course, couldn’t reveal any more details about Skyfighter, he does expound on his creative shorthand with Gosling. Quite often, Tropper found inspiration in Gosling’s cadence and expressions.

“He would off-handedly say things; I knew that would make its way into the movie,” says Tropper about the Barbie star, “His voice gets in your head.”

Tropper wrote Starfighter while literally show-running his own series, Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors, writing pages at nights, weekends and sometimes late afternoons. However, because all below-the-line departments are a go on a Star Wars movie, quite often great ideas and rewrites came from the crafts side.

“I never experienced this before on a movie, the departments weren’t just executing, they were actually creatively inputting,” he tells Crew Call, “Everything has to be built on a Star Wars movie, you’re not going to Home Depot to get tables.”

The great collaboration with Levy and Gosling led to another opportunity for Tropper: Writing the reboot of Ghost Rider, due out in July 2028.

Says Tropper, “I don’t know if I walked into Marvel that I’d be a slam dunk by myself.”

Tropper is nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Drama Series for Your Friends & Neighbors this year.