Audiences across the globe are currently enjoying Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens , which just earned the biggest opening weekend of all time . Before that, Driver was most well-known for his role on the Lena Dunham-starring HBO series Girls . Now they will be able to see the actor on the small screen yet again in the beginning of next year, hosting one of television’s most long-running and celebrated shows. NBC has just announced that Driver will be the host of Saturday Night Live on January 16, 2016, according to The Wrap .
Since Adam Driver will be hosting on the night of January 16, the first episode of 2016, it will air only four weeks after the release of The Force Awakens .
See you in 2016! #SNL pic.twitter.com/iw6rXwS12m
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 20, 2015
Adam Driver is the first and only cast member from Star Wars: The Force Awakens to get the chance to host Saturday Night Live , however Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and director J.J. Abrams did appear in a Star Wars screentest sketch in an episode that aired last month.
During his SNL appearance, Adam Driver will more than likely be promoting the season five premiere of the hit HBO series Girls , which will debut on February 21, 2016, in addition to the inevitable string of Star Wars -related jokes and sketches. The actor’s popular character and on-again, off-again boyfriend to Dunham’s character, Adam Sackler transitioned into the animated television realm earlier in the year. Lena Dunham called into Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and seems to suggest that the show will only last until season six.
“Never say never, but that is the way that we’re thinking about it right now and we’re starting to think about sort of how to wrap up the storylines of these particular young women. I started working on this show when I was 23, and now I’m going to be 30, so it kind of feels right that this show kind of sandwiched my 20s and then I go off into the world!”
Driver also had a guest starring role on Fox’s The Simpsons during the show’s Season 27 premiere back in September.
But before he makes his SNL debut, the actor will have to learn to adjust to being forever recognized as a Star Wars villain. Adam Driver spoke to Digital Spy on how he approached his performance in The Force Awakens .
“It’s very much like playing a real person,” Driver explained. “You take the things that open your imagination, and disregard the things that don’t. Where we originally started was Kurosawa’s movie – The Hidden Fortress . It kind of originally inspired George Lucas in the first place. I started there, and stole stuff from that. I watched the originals and stole things from that. I wasn’t actively trying to differentiate from Darth Vader.”
“You have to trust that you thinking under a mask is enough – that [your] story is still coming through. It’s very theatrical in a way. You feel like you have to use your whole body in a way you don’t do normally in film, I might say.”
The final episode of Saturday Night Live in 2015 was hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The two performed a parody of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video and did a series of their most legendary SNL impressions. The musical guest for the January 16 episode has not yet been announced.
[Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images]
