The Second FNAF Movie Won’t Be A Prequel, Leaker Claims

(This article contains some spoilers for The Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie)

The Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie has been off to a resounding international commercial success since its launch in theaters and on Peacock on October 26, leaving plenty of fans eager for an announcement of a FNAF Movie sequel. One movie leaker, who claims to have insider information, said their source has told them that, unlike in the game series, the second movie will be a true sequel and not a prequel.

This information comes from the X (formerly Twitter) account @entomsalt, along with a claim that the second movie is already in the pre-production stage. Entom has been covering pre-release news about the recently released film for a long time, and a look through their page’s history shows that they have been active in debunking rumors from other sources in the past, such as the fifth animatronic being Nightmare Freddy.

While no official word of a sequel or prequel has been announced by distributor Universal Pictures or producers Blumhouse Productions and Scott Cawthon Productions—and therefore, the leaker’s claims should be taken with a grain of salt—there are reasons to believe a sequel could already be in the works.

A Grain Of Truth To The Sequel Rumor?

For those who have been following the trail over the FNAF movie’s arduous production history, the concept of a sequel shouldn’t be a surprise, even if you ignore the opening-weekend success the film’s been enjoying. In an interview first posted to YouTube this past February—about eight months before the movie’s premiere—actor Matthew Lillard, who plays ‘phone guy’ Steve Raglan/series big-bad William Afton in the first film, revealed that he had signed on for a “a three-picture deal” of FNAF movies, not just a single release. Lillard’s comment appears in the below interview video around the 12:50 mark:

Beyond that, series creator Scott Cawthon has made past comments stating that he would like there to be a trilogy of FNAF movies based on the first three games “ideally, if the first movie does really well”. However, Cawthon made that comment back in 2018, more than four years before Lillard’s confirmation that he had signed on for a trilogy.

But The Second Game Wasn’t A Direct Sequel

Cawthon’s 2018 comments are further complicated by his statement that the three movies would follow the plot of the first three games. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (the game) is, in fact, a prequel to the original. Furthermore, the first film relies heavily on elements from across the first three games. For example, the climactic scene in the film has the springlocks in Afton’s yellow bunny suit (Spring Bonnie) activating and crushing/skewering his torso. This is reminiscent of a scene from the third game that showed the spirits of the five children—now free after Afton destroyed their animatronic bodies—chasing him into his safe room and being killed by the springlocks.

Additionally, the film alludes to two characters who made their debut in the second game. A Balloon Boy statuette features in multiple jumpscares and first appears next to a flashlight (fittingly, as his role in the game was to disable the player’s flashlight) and is shown to be possibly sentient in his mid-credits scene, as he appears in the back seat of a taxi. Further, a music box-style rendition of folk song My Grandfather’s Clock plays over a portion of the end credits. That same song features in the FNAF2 game as the only thing keeping The Puppet from attacking and killing the player.

For those who have been following the trail over the FNAF movie’s arduous production history, the concept of a sequel shouldn’t be a surprise, even if you ignore the opening-weekend success the film’s been enjoying.

The plot of the film also takes some sharp turns away from the plot established in the games, chiefly with Vanessa, a character not introduced in the games until Help Wanted, being revealed to be Afton’s daughter. In the games, Afton had only one daughter, Elizabeth, who died as a child and whose soul possesses Circus Baby, the main animatronic featured in Sister Location.

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds for FNAF as a film franchise, but with the twists and turns that the plot of the games, novels, and movie have made so far, coupled with the series creator still having an active role in production, it seems like anything could be possible.