Entertainment

‘SNL’ expected to add five new players

After some major cast departures last May, “Saturday Night Live” is most likely going to add five new players, according to reports.

Comedians Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Michael Patrick O’Brien and actress Noel Wells are rumored to be the lucky quintet, according to deadline.com.

They will fill the spots vacated by “SNL” vets Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis.

O’Brien has been on the “SNL” payroll for the past four years, as a writer — a position that has also proven fortunate for former writers Sudeikis and Seth Meyers, who will also exit the show this fall and will succeed Jimmy Fallon as the host of “Late Night” in February, when Fallon replaces Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.”

O’Brien has already appeared in a few sketches on “SNL” and also hosts a show on Yahoo called “7 Minutes of Heaven.”

The other four performers have been making names for themselves at the legendary improve group Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

(Current “SNL” cast members Kate McKinnon and Bobby Moynihan are alumni of the improv troupe.)

Some viewers may recognize Bennett as the guy in the AT&T kids commercials. Mooney is part of the sketch comedy group Good Neighbor.

NBC has yet to make an official announcement, but the Internet is already buzzing with criticism that it’s the same old white-centric casting that has made the show, which premiered in 1975, seem so dated.