When did Chadwick Boseman host SNL? Comedian Kenan Thompson recalls interrupting the late actor’s opening monologue

The Fat Albert actor and comedian, Kenan Thompson, recently opened up about playing the ThunderCats character Panthro and crashing Chadwick Boseman's monologue on Saturday Night Live.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Kenan Thompson, 48, spoke during a conversation with Louie Zakarian, Jason Milani, and Sarah Sherman at the New York Comic Con on October 11, 2026, recalling playing the ThunderCats character and revealing how he interrupted the Black Panther star, Chadwick Boseman, during his opening monologue on SNL.

The Get On Up actor, Chadwick Boseman, who lost his life to colon cancer, passed away on August 28, 2020. He hosted the immensely popular sketch comedy show SNL for the first time on April 7, 2018. Boseman hosted the 17th episode of season 43 with the Bodak Yellow rapper, Cardi B, who appeared as the musical guest.

As Kenan Thompson talked about crashing Boseman's SNL opening monologue at the New York Comic Con, the Good Burger actor, during an Atlanta magazine interview in 2021, mentioned how Chadwick, with whom he collaborated for a Black Jeopardy comedy sketch on SNL, was nice to him and caring toward him. Thompson said at the time:

"We were trying to figure out how to step up his episode past Tom Hanks, because he’d just done it, and that was the pinnacle for that sketch up until that point. We were struggling to figure out how to get him bigger and bigger laughs."

He added:

"We finally tightened it at the very end. He found it as well. It was a beautiful realization to hear what we were finding with the characters being matched by the audience watching it."

After interrupting the late Chadwick Boseman's SNL monologue, Kenan Thompson opened up about playing the ThunderCats character on the sketch comedy series

While speaking at the New York Comic Con panel on Sunday, Kenan Thompson spoke about playing his favorite ThunderCats character, Panthro, on Saturday Night Live. The Heavyweights actor talked about how amazing it was to play the character and shared how he had cried after looking at himself in the mirror once the makeup was finished. Thompson said:

"My ultimate, favorite 'can I get them to build something crazy that I love personally?' and was like 'if this is just for me, I would be totally fine with that,' it was Panthro."

He continued:

"I didn’t want to look in the mirror until it was done and when I looked I almost cried because it was my childhood coming to life."

Thompson further added:

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"It was a dynamic, silly thought that turned into something really amazing."

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