Jason Sudeikis, the most high profile member of the Saturday Night Live cast, has announced he will not be returning to the show in the fall. Sudeikis is following comedians Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Seth Meyers and Kristen Wiig out of the long-running show, leaving NBC bosses with a dilemma on their hands as they seek to keep the show relevant, popular and most of all funny for its 39th season.

Sudeikis, who has worked on the show for 10 years, announced the news during a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman,

"Yeah, I'm going to leave. Yeah, I'm not coming back next fall." he told the veteran host, to a bewildered audience. Letterman had apparently not heard of the departure and began asking the actor questions about life working on the show, with the 37-year-old dropping the bombshell shortly after.

As mentioned, Sudeikis - probably best known for his Mitt Romney impression on last year's season - follows Hader, Armisen and Wiig as comedians leaving the show. Hader announced his departure in May, while Armisen left it until last month. Mainstays Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg departed in 2012 to focus on movies. Head writer Seth Meyers will leave the show after the end of the year to become the host of NBC's new late-night talk show.

It's no secret that Saturday Night Live acts as a stepping stone to the movie world, and Samberg and Wiig have already tasted early success. Sudeikis has done plenty of movie work, though will his decision to leave see him accomplish what the likes of Chevy Chase, Tina Fey and Mike Myers did after leaving SNL?

Coming up next month is the comedy movie We're the Millers, in which Sudeikis plays a veteran pot dealer creating a fake family as part of a plan to move a huge shipment of week into the U.S from Mexico. It stars Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts and, if the trailer's anything to go by, could be pretty funny.

After that, we've got Tumbledown, a comedy about a young woman (Rose Byrne) who struggles to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed folk singer. Soon, a brash New York writer forces her to confront her loss and the ambiguous circumstances surrounding the death.

Watch Jason Sudeikis chatting about 'Epic':

And then there's Horrible Bosses 2. Seth Gordon's 2011 comedy received lukewarm reviews with its high profile trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Sudeikis carrying an otherwise shaky plot. The whole gang is back for a sequel, which should hit in 2014.

So there you go, plenty to keep Sudeikis fans entertained over the next year or so, but a really, really strong comedy role wouldn't go amiss. Writers?

Jason SudeikisJason Sudeikis Looking Every Inch The New Yorker