Even Before The Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 News, Blumhouse Started Teasing Another Beloved Character From The Games

For arguably too long, Blumhouse’s horror sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 remained an unofficial hope, despite the film’s release boasting big box office stats and a huge uptick in Peacock subscriptions. Thankfully, the big news was finally confirmed during CinemaCon, with tentative filming and release dates set for the upcoming video game adaptation. Before that happened, though, Blumhouse was already hinting at the follow-up by revealing a fan-favorite antagonist being crafted behind the scenes.

I suppose a fan of the FNAF movie who's only vaguely famliiar with the game franchise could glance at the picture below and not realize that it was a tease for an assumed follow-up feature. But for everyone else, there are four clues that this was setting up Five Nights at Freddy's 2 being revealed to the non-animatronic world at large. Check it out:

To start off with, we have the Jim Henson Creature Shop being involved, which is a pretty clear sign, given those talented artists were responsible for bringing the first film's possessed characters to life in glorious fashion. Even people who didn't dig the movie still gave props to the character designs, so their involvement already makes things better.

Then we have the two more blatant nods to Five Nights at Freddy's. One would be the guy's Springtrap shirt, since that's not only a game character, but also the suited-up version of William Afton's that Matthew Lillard showed up as in the final act. There are also some actual movie-referencing promotional placards on the desk in the background.

Then of course there's the creature being built, and there's really only one animatronic that it could be, given the number and placement of the appendages shown. We're talking Mangle, baby! (No, I wasn't calling you, Circus Baby, so get back.)'

First appearing in the second game — coincidence? — Mangle was created as a freakier and less kid-friendly version of Foxy, though its original form soon gave way to the mashed-up nightmare that fans know and love. It's a fright to see in almost any digitized capacity, so I cannot wait to get a look at a practical version hanging down from a doorway. And I'll just presume they won't be going with the paddle-ball version from FNAF World.

Emma Tammi shared her thoughts about a sequel with CinemaBlend ahead of the first film's wide release, so we can presumably expect to see some of those same threads expanded on. Given Josh Hutcherson's previous comments about development, he'll likely be back, as well as Matthew Lillard, who told us the creative team had a "bible here to pay attention to and follow" by way of the games, and made it sound like there was a lot more live-action story to tell.

Blumhouse, which is also teaming with Lionsgate to revive the Blair Witch Project franchise, set a general release window of Fall 2025 for Five Nights at Freddy's 2, but stay tuned for more updates as they creep and crawl through the ventilation shafts. Check out all the other upcoming horror movies while waiting for Freddy's return.