Adam Driver Hides A Lightsaber In His 'SNL' Promo

After a highly successful 2015 for Adam Driver, he's starting 2016 off with a bang — by hosting Saturday Night Live on January 16 — and, if that's not exciting enough on its own, then NBC has just released the promos for Driver's SNL hosting appearance. As one of the stars of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this was the perfect opportunity to create an SNL promo with Adam Driver that was full of Star Wars parodies — and he didn't disappoint. In typical SNL style, his promos alongside the hilarious Kate McKinnon poked fun at not only his Star Wars character Kylo Ren, but at the criticism his character faced for being a bit too dramatic. While they may have missed an opportunity to go all out, hopefully, on Saturday, they will capitalize on the parodies.

The promos take place inside of a diner, and the best reference came during the one in which McKinnon happens to steal Driver's last fry, which she kindly apologizes for. That doesn't stop him from powering up his lightsaber under the table, but, unfortunately, he didn't count on her having one of her own. It was the perfect way to incorporate Star Wars without being too over the top. However, since being over the top has become a Driver speciality, they definitely played that up in the promo. At one point, Driver gets offended that he's the only host that had to do his promo in a studio, and becomes very dramatic, saying "They brought us here, to this godforsaken diner, to laugh and joke and dance, like everything is OK, but everything's not OK!" Luckily, McKinnon is there to calm him down and bring him back to reality.

While the Star Wars references were short lived, that could be just a taste of what we'll get to see when the show premieres live on Saturday. SNL has done a great job with their parodies — especially Star Wars — over the years, including their "Star Wars Auditions" sketch in November. They used actors from the actual film, including a few famous faces like Emma Stone and Jon Hamm. If that sketch is a delightful foreshadowing, there will be a good amount of Star Wars references on Saturday. By the end, Star Wars fanatics should have enough Kylo Ren jokes to last until the next film debuts.

Driver is no newbie to the comedy game, so seeing him in his element will be a sight to behold. I'm sure they have plenty of hilarious, yet self-deprecating, sketches for the actor to participate in. This is sure to be the beginning of a very fruitful year for Driver, who also stars alongside Lena Dunham in the HBO series Girls, and will be playing the lead in the second ever Amazon picture Paterson. It will be interesting to see what 2016 will bring for him, but, until then, watch Driver host Saturday Night Live this Saturday, January 16, on NBC.

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