Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Five Nights at Freddy’s.
After a decade spent marinating in development hell, Five Nights at Freddy’s has finally hit the big screen, taking fans of animatronic atrocities to Freddy Fazbear’s like never before.
Like with any adaptation, there were going to be some changes. Character motivations are nudged in new directions. Horrible deaths are reimagined. But at its core, the movie is still exactly what franchise devotees were hoping for: A chance to watch possessed pizza robots mess some dudes up.
Still, it might have shocked longtime players to realize that the film’s protagonist, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), was of no apparent relation to the villainous William Afton (Matthew Lillard). FNaF stans with a few games under their belts will have gone into the movie expecting to learn that, like in the games, Schmidt was secretly the son of Afton, the serial killer and Fazbear Entertainment co-founder. As players learn throughout the series, Schmidt works his way into a position at the company under an assumed name in order to put a stop to his old man’s gruesome actions.
Instead, the movie interprets Mike as a long-suffering guardian to his younger sister, Abby. He takes the security gig as a way to keep the lights on and prevent their scheming aunt from taking custody, but with no hidden, patricidal agenda. There’s a chance that all of this is will change in the franchise’s already-in-development sequels. Lillard has already revealed that he’s on board for two more Five Nights at Freddy’s movies, leaving plenty of time to develop the terrible Afton family tree. For now, at least, the Freddy Fazbear’s security guard can bank just a little more of that $120 paycheck, since he won’t need to buy anyone a Father’s Day card.
