Calls for Kanye West to Replace Pete Davidson on Blue Origin Space Flight

Calls have been made for Kanye West to replace Pete Davidson on Blue Origin's flight to space, after a scheduling conflict forced the comedian to pull out.

Saturday Night Live star Davidson, 28, had been scheduled to take the flight with Jeff Bezos' company on March 23, which would have put him in the company of previous celebrity space tourists William Shatner and Michael Strahan.

However, it was announced on Blue Origin's verified Twitter account on Thursday that a rescheduling of the flight date to later in the month has meant that Davidson can no longer be one of the six crew members.

"Blue Origin's 20th flight of New Shepard has shifted to Tuesday, March 29," read the statement from the company. "Pete Davidson is no longer able to join the NS-20 crew on this mission. We will announce the sixth crew member in the coming days."

While no reason has been given for the change of date, the closing sentence in Blue Origin's statement that a new crew member would be announced prompted a wave of requests for that sixth person to be West, 44.

"Take @kanyewest instead thanks," tweeted Austin Braun, who serves as chief strategist and creative officer at Ascend Engineering.

Messaging West directly, Jake Eichstaedt, sports director of Wilmington, North Carolina, ABC affiliate WWAY told the star to "make it happen."

After GeekWire contributing editor Alan Boyle shared a headline on Davidson dropping out of the trip to space, he pondered: "I wonder if @kanyewest is available..."

"Get Kanye on the phone!" Complex pop culture writer Karla Rodriguez commented, alongside a GIF animation of West aboard a small aircraft.

Alex Young, founder of online publication Consequence, suggested that the coveted seat had already gone to the "Donda" rapper, responding to the announcement: "It's Kanye."

For the uninitiated, West has in recent weeks written a slew of Instagram posts directed at Davidson, who sparked the rapper and designer's ire after embarking on a romance with his now-ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.

The bad blood reached new heights earlier this month when West released the music video "Eazy," which showed him kidnapping and burying a claymation depiction of Davidson.

Earlier this week, Davidson's friend, writer Dave Sirus, leaked screenshots of a purported text message exchange between West and the comedian.

Davidson was depicted as telling West that he was "in bed with your wife," before proposing that the two men meet privately to discuss and resolve their differences.

Kardashian, 41, filed for divorce from West in February 2021 after almost seven years of marriage, and was this month declared legally single. She has since sung the praises of her romance with Davidson in recent interviews.

West last month shared screenshots of messages from Kardashian, who warned him that he was creating a "dangerous and scary environment" for her and Davidson through his stream of Instagram messages.

"Someone will hurt Pete and this will be all your fault," Kardashian wrote.

West, who refers to Davidson as "Skete," captioned the post: "Upon my wife's request please nobody do anything physical to Skete. I'm going to handle the situation myself."

On Wednesday, West was hit with a 24-hour ban from Instagram, after he posted a racial slur aimed at Trevor Noah, who had accused the musician of "harassing" Kardashian in the aftermath of their split.

Kardashian, who shares four children with West, last month spoke out against her ex-husband's "constant attacks on me in interviews and on social media" in an Instagram Story post.

"Divorce is difficult enough on our children and Kanye's obsession with trying to control and manipulate our situation so negatively and publicly is only causing further pain for all," she wrote.