Saturday Night Live will be without veteran cast members Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah when the show returns for its 42nd season this fall.

Killam and Pharoah will leave after each appearing on SNL for six seasons, TV Line first reported. Still, Killam told Uproxx news that he'd been let go came as a bit of a surprise, especially since he was supposed to have fulfilled a seven-year contract.

"I don’t know fully. I don’t know the other side of it," he said. "You sign for seven years, so I had one more year. I had sort of had it in my head I would make this upcoming year my last year, but then heard they weren’t going to pick up my contract. I was never given a reason why, really. I can assume until the cows come home. But I do know I’m directing this movie [Why We’re Killing Gunther with Arnold Schwarzenegger] and I’ll have two months of post-production that would have bled into the SNL production schedule, so we kind of communicated that."

Killam, who's impersonated Andy Cohen, Donald Trump and Matthew McConaughey while on the show, said he has no regrets about leaving. And that his departure stings a little is just proof of how much it meant to him, he said.

"I enjoyed being on the show. I was there for six years," he said. "I have not been anywhere in my life for six years. I don’t know that the end of something that you’ve committed that much time and energy to is ever going to feel great. And I think that just bodes well in both directions. Not feeling great leaving means that you were where you were supposed to be. And not feeling great leaving also means you didn’t overstay your welcome."

Weekend Update anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost have been confirmed to return for Season 42, according to The Wrap. The rest of the cast —which includes Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong and Aidy Bryant — has yet to be confirmed.

Fans — Justin Long included — aren't so thrilled with the shakeup:

Think SNL made a wrong move by letting these two cast members go? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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