2023 seems to be the year of Five Nights at Freddy’s. From new games, the silver screen, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 & Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator canonically taking place this year, the future looks bright for Freddy and friends.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the most widely known game franchises of all time. Starting in 2014 with the release of the first game, the franchise has been full steam ahead ever since. The games revolve around surviving from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M. while being hunted by Freddy and his friends. The cast normally revolves around Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. The franchise was blown up in no small part thanks to the videos from giant youtubers like Jacksepticeye and Markiplier. The other side of the games is also imperative to the success of the franchise, the lore. Thousands of theories have been released trying to solve the ever evolving story of the franchise. Matpat from the Youtube channel Game Theory has been attempting to solve the story since the first game. This year, however, it seems Scott Cawthon (The Creator of FNAF), Steel Wool Studios (FNAF Game Developers), and Blumhouse Productions (Horror Movie Studio) have turned on the afterburners to make 2023 the year of FNAF.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach Ruin

Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach was one of the most decisive games in the franchise, from being loved by some, to being hated by others. However, something that the FNAF fandom can agree on is that the Ruin DLC is amazing. Ruin was announced about a year after Security Breach was released, and was hyped up by Steel Wool, and the community itself. In the game, we follow the story of a girl named Cassie, and how she explores the abandoned and “ruined” Pizzaplex from the main game, all in search of her friend Gregory, our protagonist from Security Breach. The game gets into extreme detail about the Pizzaplex and which ending of SB is canon, and how they all influence Cassie, and the forgotten and ruined animatronics. The DLC is MUCH scarier than the main game, and is more focused, creating an immersive experience that won’t be forgotten easily by the player. The game also has incredible lore reveals and answers many of the lingering questions from SB, and even introduces a new character alongside Cassie, a character that could change the series forever. I won’t go into spoilers, but trust me, the ending of Ruin is shocking. The greatest thing about the DLC however may be that it’s free! The game is free to all SB owners, and will be free if you buy SB now. The Ruin DLC is available on Playstation and PC, and is rumored to be released on Xbox and Nintendo Switch in the near future.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Tales from the Pizzaplex 

FNAF: Tales from the Pizzaplex is a book series that tells stories from inside of the Pizzaplex, and surrounding the disastrous consequences of Fazbear Entertainment’s horrific actions. The Tales books are masterfully created to include three short stories inside of one book, all telling a short horror story that relates back to the games. The books are all written by Scott Cawthon, and are very, very helpful at solving the lore of the games, ESPECIALLY in the Ruin DLC. These short stories are great to read, and paint a disturbing picture of what happens in the world of FNAF while Fazbear unleashes evil onto the world. This is the third series of books that Scott has created. Most recently, in the community, there has been a huge debate about the canonicity of the books to the games. Matpat, who has been a major theorist in the community, has come out to state his feelings on the debate. He states the differences between canonicity and continuity, and how the books are still canon, but might not be canon to the games’ timeline. The debate has heated up recently, and without going into spoilers, I strongly suggest researching the debate, and formatting your own opinion on it, as it seems the books will be a strong player in the future of the franchise. The 8th book in the franchise is releasing on October 3rd, with a 9th book rumored to be releasing in the near future.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2

After the franchise seemingly ended in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator, also known as FNAF 6, no one expected Steel Wool and Scott to come out with a new game in the franchise, an amazing and terrifying game called Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted. Help Wanted is a Virtual Reality experience, and brings the world of FNAF right to your VR system. Help Wanted also provided MAJOR lore reveals, which led into Security Breach. Now, after four years, Help Wanted 2 is slated for release in December 2023. This game looks EXTREMELY promising, utilizing new VR technology to make a visually stunning game. The game was shown off at PAX West 2023, and even had a few levels of the game ready to play. These levels were played by famous FNAF YouTubers, including Dawko, who uploaded his gameplay to YouTube. The gameplay shows off three levels; “Bonk a’ Bon”, “Breaker Room”, and “Carousel”. In Bonk a’ Bon, we play the classic carnival game of hitting rising plushies back into holes in an arcade machine. The plushies are Bonnie, which we need to hit, Helpy, which we can’t hit, and Plushbaby, which we need to hit before they kill us. To me, and to many other FNAF fans with keen eyes, we can see that we are in Security Breach’s arcade, with a glitching arcade machine in the background. This is very important to the current lore, and relates back to SB in big ways. In the trailer for HW, we also see the repair panel from Ruin in the Sister Location elevator, a panel we have to use in Ruin. This confirms connections between the two games. The second level showcased was Breaker Room, a terrifying level where we repair a breaker while being stalked by Funtime Freddy from Sister Location. We have to push Freddy back using a megaphone, while attempting to reboot the system at the same time. Finally, we have, Carousel. Carousel is one of the most important levels shown in the gameplay, as we attempt to repair a Carousel littered with Fazbear Entertainment animatronics, as Moon from Security Breach inches closer and closer to the player, spelling instant death whenever Moon gets too close. This level is extremely exciting, as a SB character is on full display. This also confirms connections between SB and HW2, and is being watched very closely by the fanbase. Help Wanted 2 is slated to be released for the PSVR 2, with a release on other VR systems like the Meta Quest 2 highly speculated, especially as Meta Quest 3 is releasing on September 27th, which is TODAY as of time of writing!

Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Movie

Throughout 2023, amazing things have happened regarding the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. From new games to new books, everything is looking up in the world of FNAF. However, one of the most important things to ever happen in the franchise is happening right now. The FNAF Movie is headed to theaters in only a month! This movie is massive, with millions of fans eager to see Freddy and the Gang on the silver screen. The moment isn’t without anticipation either. Warner Bros first announced that they would be making a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie way back in April of 2015. This announcement was staggering to FNAF fans, and caused hundreds of rumbles of excitement to flood the internet. This announcement was also made in the middle of the first 6 games being released, with FNAF 3 coming out only a month prior, and Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (FNAF 6) not being released until December of 2017. Everything was looking fine, until development shut down. The community was shocked, and no one knew what was going to happen. The movie was thrown into Development Hell, passing between studio to studio with no end in sight. This was because of the man himself, Scott. Scott Cawthon was not satisfied with the original script of the film, and for the next 8 years, all the way to today, Scott was fully in charge of making the script and bringing his vision to life. This is until May 16th, 2023, when Blumhouse Pictures announced the movie being made by them, accompanied by a teaser trailer, and multiple poster launches. The teaser today, uploaded by Universal Pictures, has over 28 million views on YouTube. The story of the movie takes major inspiration from the first game, but it also brought together multiple aspects of the first three games in the franchise. The story follows Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) as he applies for a job as the Security Guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike Schmidt was the Security Guard who we played as in FNAF 1. However, lore enthusiasts everywhere know that Mike Schmidt was a pseudonym used by Micheal Afton to work at the pizzeria. It is currently unknown if Mike from the movie is also following this same story, but the theory that he is Micheal Afton is very popular. Back to the Movie. Mike gets hired by Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard) to work at the pizzeria as the Security Guard. It is widely and heavily believed that Matthew Lillard truly plays William Afton, and the name of “Steve Raglan” is a pseudonym, which is a move that William Afton played in the first FNAF Novel, The Silver Eyes, calling himself “Dave Miller”. As we see, and as we will continue to see soon, many of the characters in the movie have connections to those from the games. Mike has a sister named Abby (Piper Rubio) in the movie, who lives with him. He acts as her caretaker, as it seems Mike’s parents aren’t around (another tie to the Micheal Afton theory). Abby relates to Micheal Afton’s sister from the games, Elizabeth Afton. She was killed by the Baby Animatronic, and went on to possess her. Something interesting is that Abby is an anagram for Baby. Finally, Mike ends up at the Pizzeria with Abby, as he couldn’t find or afford a babysitter. He has to spend his night with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, who are all possessed by the children murdered by Afton. In the trailers, we see Mike approached by Officer Vanessa Monroe (Elizabeth Lail), a Police Officer who visits Mike at the restaurant, and is very knowledgeable about the dark past of the pizzeria. She also knows about the Missing Children’s Incident (also from the games), where five kids were murdered and stuffed into the Animatronics. Vanessa is a very striking character in the movie, who relates to a game character from far further into the franchise’s history. She relates to Officer Vanessa from Security Breach, who is a Security Guard at the Mega Pizzaplex. She was possessed by Afton, and turned into the killer Vanny. It’s unclear if this will be hinted at happening in the movie. In the trailers we’ve seen, Spring Bonnie appears later in the movie, seeming to end with a climactic showdown with Mike and Vanessa. The Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie hits theaters on October 27th, with millions of fans waiting on the edge of their seats for the ticket sales drop, rumored to be coming soon.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is an amazing franchise, and is currently in one of the healthiest places it has ever been in. Freddy and Friends are enormously popular, appearing in multiple games, books, now even a movie, and are beloved by millions of fans, including myself. I hope that you’ve been informed on the current, wonderful state of the franchise, and I’ll see you all in theaters on October 27th!