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Dan Aykroyd's Absence from SNL's 50 Anniversary Celebration Explained

Dan Aykroyd's Absence from SNL's 50 Anniversary Celebration Explained

Yahoo18-02-2025

The Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary celebration was a star-studded event, with many beloved cast members returning to mark the occasion. However, the absence of Dan Aykroyd left many fans wondering why wasn't he present on SNL.
Here's everything to know about Aykroyd's absence from SNL's 50th anniversary.
Dan Aykroyd will be notably absent from Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary special, a surprising turn given his role as one of the original cast members of the show. A source close to Aykroyd confirmed that he 'could not come' to the event (via LateNighter).
However, it is expected that his iconic moments from the early years of SNL will be featured in clips during the broadcast. The exact reason behind his absence remains unclear. Aykroyd's absence means that the reunion of the original 'Not Ready for Prime Time Players' won't be complete. Fans had hoped for a full reunion of the original cast, but that will no longer happen.
The special, which airs on February 16, will still be star-studded. It features a lineup of both current and past cast members, including Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and Maya Rudolph, among many others.
Aykroyd's absence is significant due to his important role in the show's early years, especially as a member of the original 1975 cast. Alongside Aykroyd's absence, former cast member Bill Hader also declined the invitation to return for the anniversary event. Hader, who was a central figure in SNL from 2006 to 2013, has not appeared in any recent episodes (via Puck News).
Although Aykroyd and Hader won't be present in person, the 50th anniversary special will still be a major celebration of SNL's legacy. It will also feature appearances from members of the 'Five-Timers Club.' This includes Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, and Martin Short, alongside numerous other celebrities.
Originally reported by Disheeta Maheshwari on ComingSoon.
The post Dan Aykroyd's Absence from SNL's 50 Anniversary Celebration Explained appeared first on Mandatory.

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