This afternoon NBC announced that Star Trek star Chris Pine will host Saturday Night Live in May, and the episode will be aired live coast to coast.
Chris Pine To Host Saturday Night Live in May
Today NBC revealed the hosts for the last four episodes of this season of Saturday Night Live, which is enjoying its best ratings in decades. The new list includes Star Trek’s Chris Pine taking the helm on May 6th. In addition they announced that for the first time in the show’s history, all four shows will be broadcast live simultaneously across the country.
Chris Pine revealed as one of SNL’s final four hosts of the season
Pine’s hosting gig is timed to build buzz for release of the Warner Bros. film Wonder Woman, which hits theaters on June 2nd. Pine, who co-stars with Gal Godot, is playing Steve Trevor, a World War I American pilot and love interest to Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman). A new trailer for the movie was revealed last weekend at the Kids Choice Awards, where Pine and Godot appeared via video.
While this is his first time hosting, it won’t be Pine’s first time appearing on the show. In 2009, he and co-stars Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy showed up during a “Weekend Update” segment to promote the release of J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek movie.
Pine won’t be the first Kirk to captain SNL. William Shatner hosted the show in 1986, when he did his famous “Get a life!” sketch, and Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart hosted in 1994. SNL has made numerous references to Star Trek over the years, even without a Trek star hosting.
Stay tuned to the TrekMovie Celeb category for all the news about your Star Trek stars.
Nice guy. Fine actor. Catch him in ‘Hell and High Water’. However, he is NOT James T. Kirk. It’ll be a good day for me when they stop making those awful ‘fake cast’ movies.
Disagree. I found him, perhaps for the first time, to be very Kirk-like in BEYOND. It was the first one where I watched and really believed these could be the same characters as the ones from TOS. It’s because they’d grown– his Kirk finally had the maturity and class that Shatner posessed, that he lacked in the first two.
Your “fake cast” comment tell me that no matter who was in those films, no matter how good they were, you’d be hating them.
Maybe myofb dog is a fan who grew up with Kirk as a kid?
For me Shatner is and always will be the man who I instantly see as Kirk from Star Trek. He defined who that character is, and Shatner, is Kirk anyway. Same thing with Spock. Pine plays Kirk well, but he is not that character for real. Thats my take on it.
I grew up with Kirk as a kid and am fine with another actor taking the role. That is the great thing about fictional characters. While one guy may have set the standard or the mold it doesn’t mean the series cannot go on without them. Look how many James Bonds we’ve had. The only one I really didn’t like was Lazenby but if had stuck around I wouldn’t have been put off by it.
There have been plenty of Doctors, as well. It’s never been an issue for me to see another actor in a defined role, be it Bond, Dr. Who…or Captain Kirk.
I did too, Torchwood. I grew up watching TOS, for part of its first run and in the many years of its syndication.
Pine has done a great job with the role. I disagreed with the scripted portrayal of James T. in the first movie as so brash [but that was geared to the teen male audience, I think]. In the second movie he came to maturity and in Beyond he was “full Kirk.” Pine can go full Kirk for sure!
Marja, I think he was SUPPOSED to be brash in the first feature. The point in my view was to watch him evolve into the Kirk who we saw in TOS.
sorry but I could not imagine shatner’s kirk letting the enterprise be shredded the way pine’s kirk did in ‘beyond’.
it was a rookie mistake to take on the swarm that the shat would never had made.
Shatner’s Kirk set the Enterprise to self-destruct because it got boarded. And you have a problem with him letting it get shredded in a swift surprise attack from a vastly superior swarm of enemy ships?
Wow. Comments like that are why I laugh at people who hold Shatner and TOS up on a pedestal.
As an example, I think Spock is the quintessential (quinto-ssential?) Trek character, more than Kirk, and Nimoy is unparalleled in his portrayal, by far my favorite actor in all of Trek.
But that opinion doesn’t change the fact that Quinto IS Spock, in his own way. Yes, he plays the character differently, but that’s OK.
Pine plays Kirk consistent with the Kirk of TOS. You have to remember that ST09 and STID both take place prior to the time we saw Kirk in TOS. Only in Beyond do we see him in the same time period: STB takes place during the first year of TOS. And in Beyond he shines as a very TOS-like Kirk.
Frankly, I’ll go one further: I like Pine’s Kirk more than Shatner’s.
kirk only lost out to that bird of prey because scotty had not set his remote on the enterprise to handle combat.
at least he was able to take out kruge’s crew whereas kirk in ‘beyond’ foolishly engaged the swarm inn battle instead of retreating to protect his crew.
he lost a lot of crew members because of this.
Shatner also made his share of idiot mistakes. But of course, because he’s Shatner, fans are blind to his own character’s flaws. He’s become god, and an unreal mythical perfect legend.
And his fans who believe as such are morons.
because mr shatner will always be james tiberius kirk.
happy birthday to the shat.
Jesus, get over it. He’s been James T. Kirk for 7 years now. I really hope when these films are done they stay away from TOS like the plague and just focus on a new crew. They will never please you fanboys so why try.
Plus 1
Hell or High Water is a great movie. A favorite of mine from 2016.
So, by the ‘fake cast’ crack, it’s safe to assume it’s the original actors or nothing. Hated the animatronic Peter Cushing in Rogue One, and don’t want to see that happen to Trek, unless it’s billed as getting the anime treatment. Yeah, it’s a bias…
Agree, he seems like a nice enough fellow, but he’s no Kirk (or even Picard).
You won’t find a bigger Shatner fan than me.
But I’m really happy with Chris Pine as Captain Kirk for a new generation of fans
and for us old fans that want to enjoy new Trek adventures as well.
The SNL cast is now primarily women…maybe they can do a horny Kirk sketch with him going from one woman to the next. That would be faithful to “Star Trek”.
I wonder if he’ll do any political sketches, or a Star Trek sketch? Seems like he wouldn’t be into either. Didn’t realize he was playing Steve Trevor. Makes perfect sense that he takes the role Lyle Waggoner played … the last major role of his career. Hope they make his role much more interesting than the series, or this could be another forgettable effort to jump start Pine’s flat career …
His most famous role is playing Kirk. It would be bizarre if they avoided the one thing most of the world knows him for. As for political sketches did you see his comedy video as a Congressman as you coworker. Its hilarious. And its SNL, political sketches are their thing so he’ll be involved in some way. They got Scarlett Johansson to play Ivanka Trump last week.
I hope he does a Trek sketch with an appearance by Quinto as Spock, and Urban as McCoy, if either/both actors are available. What fun! They’re not plugging a Trek movie right now, so the possibility is remote though :-(
I was just wondering the same thing!
Maybe he will do both.
Pine seems happy picking and choosing his roles, and doesn’t seem to be lacking for opportunity.
Especially after the Oscar-nominated “Hell or High Water,” in which he did some great acting.
There will be plenty more unimaginative and unfunny Trump ripping, I’m sure. Their writers have been amazingly lazy the last few years. For the record, I can’t stand Trump as much as the next guy but if you are going to rip on him on a comedy show it helps if you are, you know… Funny. Don’t just go to the same dumb stand by of… “Trump’s an iditot” and Trump’s a racist”. Lazy lazy lazy lazy as well as not funny.
Hmmm … I think their political sketches have been really good this year!
With SNL it’s always, “YMMV”
The Trump sketches are some of the funniest I seen from them in years. Keep them coming please! But if you disagree I understand. Comedy is very subjective.
Get a Life -the reboot!
Yeah… I can see that sketch that week. If they do it there is a 99% chance it will not be funny, sadly.
Remember when Saturday Night Live was good? No, I don’t either.
Yeah I remember. 1975.
Today’s SNL is the best they’ve been since…ever. ;)
Did you even see SNL with the original cast in the ’70s? Were you even alive back then?
Yes, and they had a number of sucky sketches too. We just remember the great ones. “Ronco Bass-O-Matic,” “Wild and Crrrazy Guys,” “Land Shark,” and so on.
Knock-knock-knock. “Candygram!”
Schweddy Balls, anyone?
I’d say they’re on a level with the early 90s iteration, with Darrell Hammond, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, et. al. Also great political satire in those years.
They do have SOME talent in the cast. Mostly from the women it seems. But they aren’t so good that they can overcome bad material from the writers. The level of writing hasn’t been this bad since the Ann Risley, Charles Rocket, Denny Dillon days.
Not really feeling Wonder Woman at this point. Last we saw her, she was holding her own against the crusty guy curbstomping the Man of Steel. Can’t imagine the Kaisers army will be much of a challenge…
It looks like the first fun superhero movie in a while. Didn’t see Batman VS Supes, and found Marvel’s “Civil War” a huuuuge bore.
I’m wanting to go see Logan, but other then that there aren’t any upcoming comic book movies that can’t wait for them to hit cable.
I think Pine played a decent Kirk, and I agree with the others who say he finally acted like the proper Kirk character in Beyond, a leader, with similar attributes Shatner brought to the role.
What I found really interesting at the time for casting of 09′ was that Joshua Jackson really wanted the Kirk part – IMO HE would have made a great Kirk. But J.J. and Orci gave him Fringe instead, which was a fine show in it’s own right.
Looking forward to seeing Hell and High Water, too.
Whether Pine is happy with his own choices in films or not, is mostly irrelevant to the otherwise static line his career has taken. Going back to SMOKIN’ ACES, once can see that Pine is most comfortable in character driven roles, especially where guns are involved. H&HW underscores his inability to succeed in lead roles. Jeff Bridges stole that movie and as they say, a high tide lifts all boats. Pine tends to hitch his wagon to films with “A” list actors, but in each I feel he fails to deliver in straight roles. H&HW gets him back to his roots somewhat and the success he found immersing himself deep into a character, rather than playing a convincing leading role. It’s ironic that Abrams said he chose Pine because he behaved like a Hollywood actor, but he didn’t have to pay him like one. The longer Pine’s career as a leading man stagnates, the more I realize Abrams picked him more on his ability to play a Hollywood actor, than to carry a film convincingly. He’s also got a problem — Chris Pratt. Similar names can lead to box office confusion where one actor’s career is rocking into the stratosphere, and the other’s not. Either way, I agree — Pine is more Kirk-like than ever, but still not convincing to me either as a leader of a starship crew, or leading man. Though, let’s not lay this entirely at Pine’s feet — the writing in H&HW blows anything written for Pine in Trek, squarely out of the water. An actor can only do so much with the material he’s given.
I’m floored that they will actually broadcast the show LIVE. The sad thing is this is probably the most unfunny SNL has ever been it’s 40 year history yet it is enjoying it’s highest ratings for some time. There have been a total of TWO sketches that have contained actual laughs that I can recall and weekend update, at one time the one thing you could count on to be funny even if the rest of the show bombed, has been embarrassingly dull. I think the only reason I still watch this show is mainly out of respect for what it once was. The reality is I probably should just abandon it.
You can always pick and choose among the YouTube videos of sketches from each show.