Saturday Night Live: Fred Armisen Makes Surprise Appearance

As Jenna Ortega’s opening monologue Saturday Night Live kicked off tonight it didn’t take long for the first surprise guest to appear. While the actress only spent a little time in her monologue about Netflix’s Wednesday, she was quick to reveal that one of her co-stars was present, Fred Armisen. The former Saturday Night Live cast member appeared in the audience, eventually joining her on stage. After her co-star joined her, Ortega noted that Armisen was the reason she started watching SNL in the first place, revealing that her favorite sketch was “The Californians.”

Armisen appeared with Ortega in Netflix’s Wednesday playing the role of Uncle Fester, but he also appeared in a sketch with her in the series. About 30 minutes into the new episode a sketch began where Ortega was playing the lead role in a new reboot of The Parent Trap. The twist being that her double was out sick and a member of the crew, Armisen as “Ray,” appeared to act opposite her. His vulgar mouth quickly throws everything off though while the young actress tries to remain professional. 

It’s unclear if Armisen will appear in the second season of Wednesday on Netflix, but considering the huge success of the show it seems like a foregone conclusion. Netflix isn’t ready to rule out even more members of The Addams Family getting their own shows either, meaning Armisen’s Fester could get his own spinoff….eventually.

“We just started getting a writers’ room together, and kind of talking about it,” Ortega recently shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about Wednesday season 2. “And everyone’s [saying], we really want to up kind of the horror aspect a little bit, and then get Wednesday out of the romantic situation, and just let her be her own individual and fight her own crime.”  

Ortega and Armisen lead a cast that also included Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) as Nevermore Academy Principal Larissa Weems, Jamie McShane (The Lincoln Lawyer) as Sheriff Galpin, Percy Hynes White (The Gifted) as Xavier Thorpe, Hunter Doohan (Your Honor) as Tyler Galpin, Riki Lindhome (Duncanville) as Dr. Valerie Kinbott, and Christina Ricci (1991’s The Addams Family) as Marilyn Thornhill. Also featured are Emma Myers (Girl in the Basement) as Enid Sinclair, Joy Sunday (Dear White People) as Bianca Barclay, Naomi J Ogawa (Skylines) as Yoko Tanaka, Moosa Mostafa (The Last Bus) as Eugene Ottinger, and Georgie Farmer (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle) as Ajax Petropolus.