Saturday Night's Director And Writer Would Love To Do Sequels In Different SNL Eras [Exclusive]

This article contains spoilers for "Saturday Night."

By the time the credits roll on the fantastic "Saturday Night" (read our review here), you've experienced a complete story that unfolds across the chaotic 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" aired on NBC back in October 1975. 

After Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) has proven to the network brass that his chaotic sketch comedy show deserves to go live on NBC, the final sequence recreates the first sketch that debuted in the series premiere, featuring cast member John Belushi (Matt Wood) and writer Michael O'Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) engaging in an English lesson with the famous line, "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines." When it ends with O'Donoghue's character having a heart attack and Belushi's character feigning the cardiac arrest in response, with the cast and crew looking on with pride and laughter, Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) comes in and takes stock of the bodies before looking directing into the camera and shouting the show's now-famous opening catchphrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"

On the surface, it might not seem like "Saturday Night" warrants a sequel, but with 50 years of TV history that followed, there are several generations of "SNL" cast members and all the drama behind the scenes that comes with them that is ripe for adapting into another feature film. In fact, both director/writer Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan (director of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife") would be keen to dig into the other eras of "SNL," if the right opportunity presented itself. 

When "Saturday Night" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, I sat down for an interview with Jason Reitman, and I asked him whether or not he'd be interested in returning for a sequel that takes place in another era of "SNL," and he couldn't have answered more quickly:

"Oh my God. I would make 20 sequels. I've never had this on set. Usually on set, people are like, 'Hey, I'm having a good time, but when this wraps, I'm ready to leave and go do something else.' And every day the crew is pitching me, "Could we do 1976? Could we do Ebersol in 1980? Can we do Eddie Murphy shows up? What about Will Ferrell's first day?' Everyone is pitching their version, or things that happened with the music or the band. And my answer is 'Yes.' If the right idea happened, this group loved making this movie, and I would go do it again tomorrow."

In a separate interview out of TIFF, Gil Kenan echoed those sentiments about the vibe on the set, telling us, "It was a pretty special shoot and it was quick, but when you build the right production, when you have the right cast, and when everyone feels sort of committed to the task at hand, you don't want to leave. And that feeling was very much present on set. The only solace we had is that we knew we were about to go put this movie together, and that we'd get to keep living with that thing forever. But yeah, it was a special one."

The shoot was so special that Kenan said there was a moment where he and Reitman (seen above on the set of "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire") entertained the idea of what they might do with a follow-up before they had to tear down the set that meticulously re-created Studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Plaza with painstaking details. Kenan agreed that he'd be happy to make a sequel and elaborated:

"Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, there is high drama in 'SNL.' It's actually stayed high stakes for nearly every season. And we did entertain the idea before the sets were torn down because they were so cool and so one-to-one what exists in New York. The grim reality of filmmaking is you always have to tear it down and build it back up again. But the answer is yes, it is a ripe premise or world for their storytelling."

With such a rich history on television following the show's premiere, there are endless possibilities for a "Saturday Night" follow-up. Perhaps the most interesting, as far as drama and behind-the-scenes details, would be what is known as "the Dick Ebersol years" from 1980 to 1985. While this era of "SNL" would bring us Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, the rest of the cast never gained any traction with audiences, and producer Dick Ebersol didn't bring the same sharp satire to the series that Lorne Michaels had previously.

It was a tumultuous five years, and telling a story that begins with the original cast leaving the series along with Michaels, only for the showrunner to return and save it, could be a fascinating showbiz story. It wouldn't have to reuse the same near-real time framework, but it could still weave in and out of the halls of the 30 Rockefeller Center as the drama unfolds.

Another possibility could be the '90s era, where "SNL" saw beloved cast members Chris Farley (who is soon getting his own biopic) and Adam Sandler fired from the show. Also spanning multiple years, a movie about this era could also chronicle the tragic death of Farley at the end of 1997, which came not long before Norm Macdonald was famously fired in early 1998, midway through the 23rd season. It would provide a great opportunity for a young ensemble cast to bring to life another fantastic array of famous faces from the show, including the likes of Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Julia Sweeney, Tim Meadows, and more. For his part, Gil Kenan certainly has an affinity for "SNL" of the '90s:

"This is an age dependent matrix, I think, but I'm definitely the Chris Farley years. So basically, Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, Chris Farley, and then extending out. I still watch every week. So I feel like that was just, for me, the beginning of the flood. The waters have not receded."

For more from my interviews with Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan, and some of the cast members of "Saturday Night," check out the latest episode of /Film Daily right here:

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