He’s bringing sexy back to Saturday Night Live! Justin Timberlake is set to make his SNL return on Jan. 27, NBC announced on Friday (Jan. 19). He’ll be the musical guest for the fifth time as a solo artist. Dakota Johnson will be returning to host that evening for a second time.
Fans have been speculating that the singer-actor is about to announce a new album after Timberlake wiped his Instagram account clean earlier in January. Since then, he’s also announced a one-night-only show in Memphis happening Jan. 19, the same day that NBC announced his return to Saturday Night Live. Then on Jan. 17, he made a cryptic Instagram carousel post, teasing “EITIW,” which fans have speculated may be his new musical era, as the photos appeared to show the set of a music video, while sleuths on Reddit found a trademark filing for “Everything I Thought It Was…A Sonic Film.”
And to further whet fans’ appetites, the next day, it was revealed that the “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” singer is set to appear as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 25.
The 10-time Grammy winner is no stranger to Studio 8H at 30 Rock. He joined SNL‘s Five-Timers Club in March 2013, with two of those times when he pulled double duty as musical guest as well. His stints on the late-night comedy show have also resulted in several of his sketches going viral (“Dick in a Box” and “The Barry Gibb Talk Show,” for example.)
Ahead of Timberlake’s return to Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls‘ Renee Rapp is set to be musical guest on the Jan. 20 episode, which Saltburn star Jacob Elordi hosting.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, and streams on Peacock.