Trivia / Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

• Acting in the Dark: A more literal version for Matthew Lillard, who couldn't see out of the Yellow Rabbit mask, relying on director Emma Tammi's direction to know where to step.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • The Living Tombstone's popular Filk Song based on the first game has long been adopted by fans as the de facto theme song of the franchise despite being a fan creation. The film makes it official and plays it over the end credits, cementing it as the FNAF theme.
  • Sparky, a fanmade hoax character from the early days of the first game receives official status in the film as a spare mascot costume lying around in the parts and service room.
  • Vanessa being William Afton's daughter was a popular fan theory before the film's release. It's not only confirmed in the film, but is a major part of the story itself.
• Colbert Bump: This happened to a meme, of all things. Josh Hutcherson's return to prominence as Mike Schmidt led to the resurrection of the infamous Josh Hutcherson Whistle meme from 2014 as a joke jumpscare in FNAF tradition, leading to memes like this where Josh is replaced with Freddy Fazbear, and others joking that it's the male equivalent to Vanessa Shelly's 'white woman jumpscare.'
• Content Leak: The film's trailer was leaked, albeit in very poor quality, in May 2023 prior to the first teaser trailer.
• Inspiration for the Work: Influences for this film include the works of Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick. The darkness from Joker was also a source of inspiration.
• Meme Acknowledgement: Chica's cupcake has been nicknamed "Carl" by fans for almost the entirety of the franchise's lifetime. The name of the vandal it kills? Carl.
• No Dub for You: Possibly due to the lack of popularity in that region, Japan only got a sub-only release of the film, whcih was released at February 2024.
• The Other Darrin: Foxy's singing voice, originally a piece of stock audio, is sung by Kellen Goff, replacing his usual voice actor Christopher McCullough.
• Playing with Character Type: Even if Matthew Lillard is best known by those of a certain age for playing the lovable Shaggy, both in the live-action films and in animated properties since 2010, it's easy to forget that his other Star-Making Role was in the horror film Scream (1996), in which he played Stu Macher a.k.a. half of Ghostface, paralleling his role as Afton in this film, and even does the same knife wipe when stalking Mike towards the end of the film.
• Promoted Fanboy: A good chunk of YouTubers who've made their careers with the games get cameos in this movie.
  • CoryxKenshin shows up as a taxi driver who brings Abby and Golden Freddy to the pizzeria.
  • MatPat appears as an overly enthusiastic waiter at Sparky's Diner. He even gets to throw in his catchphrase, "It's just a theory."
  • The employee of the month board features Let's Players Dawko, 8-Bit Ryan, Bazamalam, DJ Sterf, John Wolfe, and FusionZGamer.
  • The Living Tombstone's iconic fan song for the first game is used as the official ending credits theme of the movie.
  • Outside of the franchise itself, Josh Hutcherson previously met Matthew Lillard on the set of the second live-action Scooby-Doo movie when he was 8 years old, and even got to take a picture with him. Now he gets to act opposite of Lillard in this film 19 years after the fact.
• Prop Recycling: Animatronic skulls from the Jim Henson series Dinosaurs can be seen in the maintenance room.
• Real-Life Relative: Jade Kindar-Martin and his daughter Jophielle Love work on the film as Bonnie and the soul possessing Chica, respectively.
• Refitted for Sequel: The Showtime button from Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted is featured in the movie, and while unused in the game, it properly activates the animatronics this time around.
• Same Content, Different Rating: The film is rated PG-13 in America but received a 15 rating (meaning that no one under the age of 15 can see it in a cinema) in the UK, leading to a complaint for cinema employees. The film is also rated 16 in Poland.
• Saved from Development Hell:
  • Initially, Warner Bros. Pictures announced they had gotten the rights to making a film based on the game in 2015, with Gil Kenan (Monster House) set to direct. However, years went by with little to no news until 2017, when Scott Cawthon said the film was essentially back to square one due to "problems with the movie industry as a whole" as well as "several delays and roadblocks".
  • Then the movie changed hands, with Blumhouse Productions producing and Kenan stepping down as director with Chris Columbus stepping in to replace him. Cawthon announced the script's first draft was completed in 2018, with a planned 2020 release... but later that year, Cawthon announced that the script had been scrapped completely and the film would be delayed. A year later, Cawthon confirmed that a new script had been finished, and the film was reportedly in "super active development" by 2020. Filming was set to start in spring 2021... but then that script was scrapped and Columbus left the project, with Emma Tammi taking up his position. It would take until February 2023 for the film to finally start production, beginning filming that month and finishing up in April before an official release date of October 27, 2023 was announced.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The movie gives Bonnie a fictional type of guitar to replace the copyrighted Gibson Flying V he used in the games, which is an element also featured in various Clickteam ports and Help Wanted.
• Self-Adaptation: Scott Cawthon, the creator of the games, co-wrote the film and is credited for the story.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Matthew Lillard signed on for this film after his kids informed him of how big FNAF was as a franchise, and told him how big of an opportunity being in the movie would be.
• Spoiled by the Cast List: Matthew Lillard appears as career counselor Steve Raglan in the first official trailer. However, Lillard was officially announced to be playing William Afton back before filming began, giving away Raglan's true identity to those who had followed the casting news.
• Underage Casting: Abby Schmidt is ten years old, while her actress, Piper Rubio, was only seven during production.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Blumhouse apparently reached out to Markiplier to have him appear in the movie in some capacity due to his status as a Fandom VIP within the FNAF fandom, but due to scheduling conflicts with his Iron Lung film adaptation he had to ultimately step out. Prior to stepping out, Mark had been denying the existence of the movie every time it was brought up because of his planned role in it. According to MatPat, Mark was supposed to be the security guard that gets killed at the beginning of the film. Scott Cawthon would comment saying that he and the rest of the team would love to try and get Mark to appear in a sequel if they end up getting to make one.
  • The set for Sparky's Diner originally displayed a prop ATC permit with a QR code printed on it. This would've been an anachronism since the film takes place in the early 2000's, a decade when QR codes weren't prominently used. The crew eventually took it down once MatPat informed them of this mistake.
  • The novelisation has several differences, both major and minor:
    • The security guard at the beginning is called "Bob" and his fate isn't left ambiguous.
    • The animatronics are in a sorry state, similar to their Withered versions, unlike the movie, where they're in practically pristine condition.
    • While, in the movie, things like Abby's fort for the animatronics are cleared up afterwards, the state of the dinining area is persistent. For example, The break-in at the pizzeria is much more detailed and there's implied to be lasting damage, including the arcade being practically destroyed.
    • Vanessa has a noticeable Vanny state, flipping between her 'all business' attitude and her more playful attitude randomly, with her eyes noticeably darkening in an odd way when she drops into the latter. Also, when she's stabbed in the closing battle, her eyes briefly act more like light bulbs than eyes...
• Working Title: "Bad Cupcake", humorously named after Mr. Cupcake.

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