‘Saturday Night Live’: James Spader, Sam Heughan, Idris Elba, Danai Gurira top our season 42 wishlist

Unfortunately, we are done with “Saturday Night Live” from now until September, which means that we’re going to be at a loss in terms of seeing some comedy professionals come on the stage and rock out, and also seeing some other worthy performers try their luck at something that may be totally new to them. We had a few wonderful first-time hosts this past season, whether it be Brie Larson, Adam Driver, or Peter Dinklage.

The latter name is one in particular we have highlighted many times over in our annual “SNL” host wishlist, where we name ten people from across TV who deserve a shot at saying “live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” at some point starting in September. This time around, we’ve got a great list of people from comedy, drama, network TV, and cable. The biggest surprise we have is that none of them have hosted before.

Priyanka Chopra, “Quantico” -She’s the breakout star of a network drama, and while “Quantico” may not be an NBC show (a.k.a. no brand synergy), they have shown willingness with Kerry Washington to bring in worthy, energetic people from other shows. Here’s also a stunning stat as first reported by Indiewire: There has never been an Indian man or woman to host this show. It is time to correct that.

Danai Gurira, “The Walking Dead” – We figure that Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus are more of the conventional choices for the role, but remember some of Danai’s scenes with Chandler Riggs and how much humor there was in them! We think that she would be a big surprise for those who picture Michonne as nothing other than a sword-wielding badass, and would represent the entire fandom well.

Idris Elba, “Luther” – Given that Jay Pharoah already does a great impression of him, we’d love seeing the two doing some sort of sketch together! Elba never hosting seems like a gross oversight given that there are so many movies that he could promote with an appearance, and we know from “The Office” that he can do brilliant comedy.

Grant Gustin, “The Flash” – We know he can perform on stage, he’s got a musical background, and he seems to have enough energy that you think it is possible he could be The Flash in real life. While booking actors off of CW shows for “SNL” is not something that happens often, “The Flash” is a huge hit for the network and Gustin is a notable name.

Sam Heughan, “Outlander” – He’s absolutely brilliant on a show taking the world by storm, and we know from speaking with him in an interviews and watching ones elsewhere that he has the charisma, present, and charm to pull this gig off. Also, “Outlander” is the sort of show that you could do a really fun parody or two off of if there are some people in the writing staff who are big fans of it.

Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot” – For one, he already looks like Pete Davidson’s twin brother! Also, he is a breakout star of one of TV’s best shows. Rami is probably hurt a great deal by “Mr. Robot” airing in the summer; the time in which he is the most relevant is, unfortunately, the time in which the show is off the air for many months.

Laura Prepon, “Orange is the New Black” – There are a wide array of people from the Netflix series who would be worthy “SNL” hosts, though like “Mr. Robot” their odds are hurt slightly by the show streaming mostly in the summer. With Prepon, we feel like she’s the top representative given that we’ve seen her live comedy chops already on “That 70’s Show.”

Sarah Paulson, “American Horror Story” – After five seasons of “American Horror Story” and also seeing her basically earn herself an Emmy (even though it hasn’t happened yet) on “The People v. OJ Simpson,” we’re absolutely convinced Paulson can do anything. Have her play five characters in a single sketch; we’re pretty sure she could do it.

Gina Rodriguez, “Jane the Virgin” – One of the funniest people currently on TV, and someone who is still at the height of her popularity following two Golden Globe nominations and a win back in 2015. Gina would be really versatile on the show, and we also think it’d be a great spotlight to give her show extra promotion. We remain convinced that if more people were aware of what “Jane the Virgin” really was, they’d want to check it out.

James Spader, “The Blacklist” – How has Spader never hosted? Seriously. Whether it be for his movies, “The Practice,” or now “The Blacklist” (and this one has NBC synergy, no less), we’ve never seen him give an opening monologue. This has to be corrected, and we can only imagine the sort of eccentric characters the show would come up with for him to play.

Who do you want to see from TV host “SNL” this coming season? Share below, and click here to get some other updates on the show right now! Also, sign up here to score some other TV news on all we cover, sent right to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)