Saturday Night Live shared the lineup for its first two shows of 2025, and the lineup for January 25th is raising some questions. After Dave Chappelle and GloRilla bring SNL back on the 18th, actor Timothée Chalamet is slated to pull double-duty as host and musical guest—leaving viewers wondering whether the star of A Complete Unknown will perform in character as Bob Dylan on the show.

In theaters now, A Complete Unknown profiles a young Dylan as he arrives in New York City to meet his ailing hero Woody Guthrie in 1961 through his controversial decision to go electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. For the film, Chalamet learned to play the guitar and harmonica, and nail down a Bob Dylan impression that impressively doesn’t sound like someone doing a Bob Dylan impression. The 29-year-old star of the Dune franchise even received notes from Dylan himself by way of an annotated copy of the film’s script—though the two have still never met.

“Bob did not have a vocal coach,” Chalamet said of his portrayal on The Zane Lowe Show. “He had two bottles of red wine and four packs of cigarettes. There’s no way to impersonate that.”

Chalamet performs all of the songs in the film and recorded A Complete Unknown‘s 23-song soundtrack. Given the years that Chalamet put into preparing for the role—which was originally announced in 2020 and continuously delayed due to the pandemic—it’d be a shame for him to put it up on the shelf. SNL has offered no clarification as to whether Timothée Chalamet will perform on the show as Bob Dylan, so we decided to take a look back through the show’s history to see how unprecedented somebody performing as an impression might be.

In Saturday Night Live‘s storied history, the only instance that comes close to the Chalamet question happened on October 2nd, 1976 when musical guest Joe Cocker was joined by his resident impersonator John Belushi for Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright“.  There have also been a pair of hosts who performed as their musical alter-egos, with Garth Brooks performing as Chris Gaines in 1999 and Donald Glover playing music as Childish Gambino in 2018.

Other than that, there is little precedent for Timothée Chalamet potentially playing SNL as Bob Dylan (who performed on the show once in 1979). The show does have a rich tradition of guests pulling double-duty as host and performer, starting with Paul Simon in the series’ second episode on October 18th, 1975—which featured a surprise reunion with Art Garfunkel. There have been some questionable takes on the tradition over the years, including when the entire Rolling Stones served as hosts and guests in 1978, and Frank Zappa‘s double play two weeks later, widely hailed as one of the show’s worst episodes ever. In the modern era, cast members Bill Hader and Jay Pharoah put Justin Beiber up as the worst host they worked with when The Biebs went for a twofer in 2012.

There was also Gary Busey‘s—shall we say, inspired—musical slot in 1979 with help from The Band’s Rick Danko and harmonicist Paul Butterfield. And although Bon Jovi was the musical guest on February 18th, 1995, that didn’t stop NFL great Deion Sanders from performing a couple tracks from his 1994 rap album Prime Time when he hosted the show.

So although there isn’t much historical basis for Timothée Chalamet performing as Bob Dylan on SNL, it certainly wouldn’t be the strangest thing Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8H has seen over the years. Tune in on January 25th to Saturday Night Live at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC to see what happens.

Timothée Chalamet “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” | A Complete Unknown Teaser