Devon Walker set the record straight about his exit from Saturday Night Live ahead of season 51.
“To be frank, I guess the best way I put it is like me and the show kind of looked at each other and we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways,” Walker, 34, told Rolling Stone in an interview published on Saturday, August 30. “I think I felt ready to leave the show, and I think the show felt ready to leave me. I was just ready to do something else. We both felt like it was time. This was such a big time commitment, and life commitment. There’s been a lot of life stuff that I feel like I’ve had to miss out on. And I felt ready to do a different version of my life. I think that me and the show are both ready to turn the page.”
Walker surprised SNL fans when he announced on Monday, August 25, that he was leaving the NBC sketch show after three seasons. His announcement was the first in a string of exits that would also see Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Heidi Gardner all departing Saturday Night Live.
In his announcement, Walker seemed to suggest he’d had a complicated experience working on Saturday Night Live, admitting that “sometimes it was really cool [and] sometimes it was toxic as hell.”
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“We made the most of what it was, even amidst all the dysfunction,” he wrote. “We made a f***ed up lil family.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Walker noticeably downplayed any insinuation that there was bad blood between himself and SNL.
“I got to work at the show in my first two seasons with two of my best friends in the world — [writers] Gary Richardson and Alex English,” he pointed. “To me, that really felt like family. And you spend so much time together, we’re seeing each other way more than we’re seeing our families. Being able to be in that environment, in the foxhole with two people who are so close to me — I feel really grateful for that.”
The actor went on, “And even people who I didn’t know before, like James Austin Johnson. I never met him a day in my life before I got started at SNL, and that man really looked out for me in ways that he really didn’t have to. There are people there who, even if you didn’t know each other before, you forge a bond with.”
Walker mentioned that he loved the “fraternity” environment of SNL that allowed him to interact with legendary cast members at February’s 50th anniversary special.
“I might see, like, Adam Sandler, you know, and he’s talking about how there’s a shorthand,” the comic said. “Even though he went through the show 30 years before I ever got there, we know what it is. There’s just an understanding that anybody who’s ever worked there will always share.”
As for the future, Walker insisted that he was “genuinely very excited” about whatever comes next in his career.
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“I think when somebody leaves SNL, people’s impulse is to be like, ‘Oh, I’m really sorry,” he acknowledged. “But to me, getting on SNL was such a blessing. I was never even training to do that thing. That’s just like a God thing, a fortunate happenstance that I ended up getting to be on that show. I’m proud of a lot of the work that I did on there, but wait till people get to see the stuff that I really want to do.”
Fans — and even former SNL cast members — have been buzzing about what other changes could take place behind the scenes before season 51 kicks off. Former SNL star Punkie Johnson — who exited the show after four years in 2024 — perfectly captured the whiplash effect many fans have been feeling.
Reacting to an Instagram post announcing Longfellow’s departure, Johnson, 40, wrote: “WTF is happening… This is like The Departed… My sexy handsome work husband… I love you so much…I’ll call you… Welcome back outside baby…. I’ll see you out here soon.”
Saturday Night Live returns this fall on NBC.
