It wasn't quite clear whether or not Fred Armisen would be returning to Saturday Night Live during May's season finale, but now it looks like we finally have our disappointing, tragic, sad answer: No, Armisen will not be returning for another season of SNL.
No official statement was made by either Armisen or NBC, but the comedian did bring it up in a recent interview with Splitsider: "I think it's clear. I didn't do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious," he explained, referencing the major Weekend Update in the finale that was primately a goodbye to Stefon and Bill Hader. "An ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to SNL and to Lorne and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion."
As for why he decided to leave now, after being a cast member for 11 years, Armisen references his IFC series, Portlandia, as a major factor in his decision: "It was really just strange, in that it felt very natural. It felt like a very healthy good time to do it...and then the other thing that really was eclipsing it was Portlandia. Portlandia started to pull me away more and more, schedule-wise, and I just felt like it'd be nice to focus on it a little more and go into the fall a bit more with shooting. So it was because of that. And also it was just a feeling."
Lucky for Armisen—and for us—just last month, Portlandia was renewed for two more seasons. Time to binge-watch!
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[via The Hollywood Reporter]
