Returning Five Nights at Freddy’s star Matthew Lillard says that part 2 is going to be fan-centric and action-packed
The video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s (read our review HERE) quickly became Blumhouse Productions’ highest-grossing movie when it reached theatres and the Peacock streaming service back in October, surpassing the likes of Split, The Invisible Man, The Black Phone, M3GAN, the recent Halloween sequel trilogy, and the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge franchises with its haul of $295 million. So, of course, there’s a sequel coming our way, aiming for a December 5, 2025 theatrical release. Returning star Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) recently said that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is going to be bigger and scarier than its predecessor, and now co-star Matthew Lillard (Scream) has added that the movie is going to be fan-centric and action-packed.
Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Hutcherson and Lillard alongside Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy), and Kat Conner Sterling (A Week Away). The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
Stunt performers Kevin Foster (WandaVision), Jade Kindar-Martin (Interview with the Vampire), and Jess Weiss (Mayfair Witches) play the animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, and Chica. Fans are speculating that characters called Toy Chica and Mangle might be in the sequel, but their involvement has not been confirmed.
The video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Lillard said, “To have a franchise like (Five Nights at Freddy’s) is very exciting. ‘I always come back’ is my last line of the movie, so I’m coming back, that’s good. Here’s the great news – I think the fans fell in love with what we did, I think [creator Scott Cawthon] is the shepherd of this incredible project and I think collectively the filmmakers listened to some of the criticism that they got, and they’re growing. I think this film is going to be tonally a little different. I think we’re going to have a lot more. I think it’s going to be an action-packed film. Again, I think it’s fan-centric, and I think they’re going to love it.“
We’ve previously heard that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is expected to film in Louisiana from October 28, 2024 through January 31, 2025.
The first adaptation was originally set up at Warner Bros., where Gil Kenan (Monster House) was going to direct the film from a screenplay he was writing with Tyler Burton Smith (the Child’s Play remake). Then the project moved over to Blumhouse, where Chris Columbus (Home Alone) was attached to direct it for several years. It finally went into production with Emma Tammi – director of The Wind, Into the Dark: Delivered, and Into the Dark: Blood Moon – at the helm, working from a screenplay she wrote with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and video game creator Scott Cawthon. Tragedy Girls writers Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill share story credit with Cawthon.
Five Nights at Freddy’s was produced by Blumhouse, in association with Striker Entertainment. Cawthon is a producer alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. Russell Binder is executive producing. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop handled the special effects that bring the homicidal animatronic animals to life on the screen.
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