What Could Have Been / Five Nights at Freddy's

In General:

In General

• Scott's interview with Dawko revealed an interesting tidbit when it came to coming up with Freddy and Foxy. He stated that in the beginning, Freddy was supposed to be a beaver, but thought it was "too on the nose" because FNaF was pretty much born from Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.'s failure, so he changed him to a bear. He also said that Foxy was going to be a wolf at some point, and went through at least two drafts before landing on a fox (there might be more than that, but Scott just didn't remember them).
  • Interestingly, later games in the series would feature an animatronic beaver and wolf.
• According to Scott, the film adaptation apparently went through nearly a dozen scripts over the course of half a decade before he finally settled on the official version in November of 2020. To name just a few, previous drafts included one which ended with the main characters finding themselves in an animatronic factory making robots for the government (rejected for straying too far from the source material), three separate screenplays for a film adaptation of The Silver Eyes, and one which would have featured Cassidy as the main character and gone very heavily into the lore (rejected for being more of a visual encyclopedia than a concise story, as well as likely being extremely confusing to anyone but the most dedicated theorists).

Games:

Five Nights at Freddy's

• According to early gameplay footage, the game originally had a life system. Running out of lives would have made you start the whole game over from the first night.
  • There was likely a later attempt to include the life system in the second game, since its assets are also present in those files.
• Scott once stated that Balloon Boy and The Puppet were going to be in the first game, but didn't make the cut.
• As mentioned in the third game's newspapers, Freddy was originally supposed to only kill the player when the power runs out in the first game. In the final version, he only just does that for the first two nights before becoming active in Night 3.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

• The game files contain sprites for a "Toxic" meter, most probably for the mask. It would likely have been some sort of timer, showing how long you could keep the mask on, and was probably cut in favor of Foxy and the music box.
• There's an unused animatronic who's represented by an image of a cracked skull◊. It seems to have been cut very early in development, as it has no starting location or other code, but interestingly, it's named "mike", the name of the previous game's player character.
• Unused graphics for several animatronics exist, including a chest-up shot of Toy Chica (similar to the one used for Toy Bonnie when he checks the player out while wearing the mask) and a full-body shot of the Puppet.
• Unused code reveals that Endo-02 and Shadow Freddy were originally meant to immediately disappear when they were seen. Due to a glitch, the characters remain on the cameras far longer (with Shadow Freddy also crashing the game).
• Originally, the fifth child would have had more of a presence in the "Give Gifts, Give Life" minigame, with the Puppet having to approach it to trigger Golden Freddy's jumpscare. This was changed to instead have Golden Freddy appear in the split second the child appears.

Five Nights at Freddy's 4

• The mysterious and infamous locked box that displays after clearing Nightmare Mode was originally meant to be openable at some point. In a Steam post for the Halloween update, Scott admits that he decided to leave the box locked, acknowledging fan theories and how at the time, "not a single person, found the pieces": the contents of the box itself was meant to be "the pieces put together", and he felt that the box staying locked is "special, a fitting conclusion in some ways"—"maybe some things are best left forgotten, forever." Scott considered having the box opened in FNAF World, where an unused texture of the box being seen open was found, but once more, its mystery was left unresolved.

Five Nights at Freddy's World

• While the first trailer showed a glimpse of a 3D overworld, the initial release used an 8-bit map instead. The Updated Re Release now has a 3D overworld, but it's much different than the one seen in the trailer.
• An iOS port would have happened if Scott hadn't removed the Android port a day after release. While part of it was due to Old Shame, Scott explained that the ports were badly optimized due to poor design choices (the overworld and battle are loaded in the same frame, causing long times to happen, which even caused the mobile ports to slow down to a crawl).

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

• There was meant to be a second trailer in the works, but it was cancelled due to Scott feeling it would spoil the game.
• There were some leaked lines for Baby and Ballora that were never used in the game, both of them mentioning something about "the show". In addition, some of the actors mentioned that some of their lines they recorded for the game weren't used.
• The Extras show that Funtime Freddy and Funtime Foxy originally had swapped color schemes and lacked a specific accessory (Freddy didn't have a puppet, and Foxy didn't have a bowtie).
• Funtime Freddy was originally going to speak with a German accent.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator

• After the release of Ultimate Custom Night, heavy rumors persisted of an Endless Simulator DLC. It would have apparently been the game as we know it now, only without the one week limit, salvaging violent animatronics, or the end-of-the-day maintenance. If any work had been done, it seems to now be in Development Hell and is unlikely to get out.
• A mysterious unused fifth night time animatronic is hinted at in the game files. All we know is that it would've been unlocked by agreeing to every sponsorship offer, and that it would teleport to the left side of the vent system as part of that enemy mechanic. It is not known whether this was meant to be a major foe on the level of the other night time animatronics, or more of an Easter Egg bonus that takes the sponsorship offers distracting you to the extreme. Despite this animatronic's almost complete removal, their former presence still has an effect on gameplay: Because their ID is still tagged to be able to teleport to the left vent, Lefty is not able to do the same, creating a minor imbalance where only Molten Freddy will teleport to the left, while both Scraptrap and Scrap Baby will go to the right.

Ultimate Custom Night

• In the early roster, Nightmare Freddy and Trash and the Gang were originally separate characters (Nightmare Freddy being separate from his Freddles and Trash and the Gang being separated into No.1 Crate, Bucket Bob and Mr. Can-Do). Candy Cadet and Adventure Endo-01 were also going to appear in the roster before being replaced by the withered animatronics. Candy Cadet was eventually Demoted to Extra as a decoration in the office that occasionally speaks, but Adventure Endo-01 is completely absent.
• Shown in Scott's Voices.com feedback, some of the actors auditioned as different animatronics before being given their final roles.
  • Zach Hoffman, Eric D. Ward, Matthew Curtis and Darbi Logan (Nightmare Fredbear, Nightmare, Nightmare BB/Music Man and Withered Chica) also auditioned for Nightmarionne before Aleks Le was chosen.
  • Tim Simmons (Nightmare Freddy) and Stephanie Belinda Quinn auditioned for Classic Freddy and Toy Bonnie before being recast, so these two animatronics do not speak. Tim Simmons would finally voice Freddy in Special Delivery.
  • Alex Le apparently auditioned for Pigpatch at one point before Christopher Mc Cullough was chosen.
• Kellen Goff originally auditioned as Freddy, but his voicelines were given to Fredbear in the final release. He would reprise the role for the Showtime song in Help Wanted, which was also unused, before the "Freddy & Friends: On Tour!" episodes finally showed his performance officially.

Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted

• A few unintended glitches and fans datamining revealed that the Showtime button was meant to trigger a scene where the hub stage's curtains open and Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy would talk, sing, and move, Christoper McCullough reprising his role as Foxy and Kellen Goff reprising Freddy, while Joe Gaudet and Amber Lee Connors voiced Bonnie, and Chica for the first time. Unfortunately, Scott Cawthon posted on Reddit explaining that the original, complete animation was finished, but he had ultimately "made the call to leave it out" as it was "one of those things that needs to feel 110% to me". He later clarified that he was not fully satisfied with Freddy's singing voice. HandUnit's introduction to the song was still accessible within normal gameplay, the original soundfile for the introduction, as shown in initial builds, plays in the Pizza Party level when the player gets stuffed into Freddy by Glitchtrap, but in the final version, HandUnit glitches out at the end. The instrumental is also accessible by playing the credits from the main menu, and three remixes of the tune appear in the game, these being the theme for the Blacklight hub, the theme from the Blacklight version of Bonnie's Parts and Services level, and the Pizza Party level. Christopher McCullough would still get to reprise Foxy in Curse of Dreadbear's Pirate Ride level, however. Said introduction would be officially used in the intro of Security Breach. Although the Freddy & Friends: On Tour!! shorts would portray Bonnie as The Voiceless, and Chica would only speak in clucking noises (which are also spoken when stunning Glamrock Chica, confirming that the original Chica was recast to Heather Masters), they managed to feature Kellen Goff in the role of Freddy at last, and he got a second chance at singing as him too (with the song making it into a hidden room of Security Breach).

Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery

• As the trailer and teaser images show, Plushtrap was originally planned to be one of the characters available in the game at launch; however, technical difficulties and conflicts about how his mechanics would work have led to him not coming out until October 29, 2020.
• Five animatronics were supposed to debut during the Dark Circus event. This was changed due to players wanting older limited-time animatronics to return, causing the event to end after Clown Springtrap's debut. Although the identity of the fifth character was never revealed, many players thought it may have been Funtime Freddy.
• Several animatronics were confirmed for the game by various means before its official discontinuation. Most notably, Lefty had unused icons confirming they were going to be implemented in the game, and through Word of God, the Glamrock Animatronics were also confirmed to appear (even Glamrock Freddy).
• According to Kane Carter, even characters from the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative such as Popgoes and Candy were considered to appear in the game.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach

• In an interview with Dawko, Steel Wool revealed that originally, an elderly nightguard was supposed to have been Gregory's guide/protector through the Pizza Plex. However, both Scott and Steel Wool found they really liked the idea of Freddy "being the good guy for once", which resulted in the nightguard being scrapped and replaced by Glamrock Freddy.
• When fans found a Vanny meter in the debug menu, Ray McCaffrey confirmed it was part of a larger feature where Vanny would appear when you stuck too long in an area. However, the feature was cut during development, though Ray has expressed interest in adding it back in a future update. It was later realized it was connected to a Survival Mode, and that the meter has enough functionality left to turn Vanessa into Vanny.
• There are removed strings of text in the game's files that suggest that the in-game clock would progress in real time like in previous games, instead of the time only advancing during scripted events in the final release. Through hacking, it was discovered this feature was meant to be used in the unused Survival Mode.
• The PS5 Gameplay trailer showed gameplay footage in ways that hinted at various changes in development that were thrown aside in the final release.
  • Glamrock Chica originally had a more lively gait like the other Glamrocks, before her Zombie Gait was added in the State of Play trailer and the final game. The scene where she plays her guitar as Gregory walks by her green room also had her stand in a different position than in the final game.
  • Sun is shown jumping upwards in the air, something he doesn't do in the final game.
  • One shot of the trailer shows a clear elevator with Vanessa staring right at Gregory from outside it as it descends. This particular elevator in-game is found in the prize area near the fire escape, but is never used as it is part of the Morton's Fork route where Vanessa catches Gregory before he can take an alternate exit. Through hacking to fly beneath the floor, it is shown the elevator would've descended down to the main lobby, where construction obstructs Gregory from being able to access the elevator.
  • The encounter at the start of the game where Gregory escapes various animatronics also had minor changes. Montgomery Gator breaking the fence gate is not covered by mist as in the final game, and the fence gate is a generic fence gate rather than the one marked with his symbol and yellow chains (which in-game marks fence gates Freddy can break with Monty's upgrade). Roxanne Wolf still struggles with a gate, but in the trailer this happens with red light shining on her. The scene where Glamrock Chica tips over some boxes as she spots Gregory also originally took place under a dark red light.
• The "Giga Monty" bug in the base game was revealed through a dump of the pre-release version of the game to be leftover data from a part of a mandatory stealth section to reach the Showtime Stage. If the player got caught in Monty's spotlight, Monty would make an unstoppable mad dash towards the player, and during this sequence running into a security bot would cause all three animatronics to be summoned to the player's location.
• Chica was originally going to have a Valley Girl voice, and some of her lines with said voice were found in the pre-release version of the game's code. However, this was scrapped for unknown reasons and replaced with her current lines. Her guitar was also originally planned to have stripes, but was replaced with her current guitar in the final version, apart from the hologram in the atrium still using the old design.
• The same PS4 pre-release build also showcased unused animations for Vanny, including an idle animation, multiple walk and run cycles, her crawling on the floor, and, for unknown reasons, her doing a cartwheel.
• As shown in this video, Gregory was apparently originally meant to upgrade Freddy using Monty's legs, rather than his claws like in the final game.
• Originally, the normal ending of Ruin would've seen Gregory simply telling Cassie to make sure the Mimic doesn't follow her while the elevator brings her back to the surface.

Literature:

Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes

• When Scott discussed some of the rejected ideas for the Five Nights at Freddy's film, he said that he and Kira both wrote three separate screenplays that aimed to adapt The Silver Eyes for the big screen. Ultimately, he decided not to go this route because of both Scott's inexperience with writing screenplays and the decision to focus on adapting the games rather than a book.

Fazbear Frights

• In addition to the cover art, fandom artist LadyFiszi was also going to provide an illustration for each story; however, due to a complicated issue involving Scholastic not being willing to print color illustrations in an otherwise black-and-white book, the decision was made to scrap these. Two of these illustrations were later repurposed and used as teasers on Scott's website.
• The third volume was originally announced as being titled Room for One More, but the titular story was shifted to the second position and "1:35 AM" took its place as the title story. "What We Found" and "Sergio's Lucky Day" also swapped places in Gumdrop Angel, for unknown reasons.
• Similarly, the seventh volume was initially announced as being titled The Breaking Wheel, but in early September 2020 its title was changed to The Cliffs, with "The Breaking Wheel" being shifted to the middle story slot. This was most likely done because of the series' tradition of putting the first story's antagonist on the cover, which would have been a problem for "The Breaking Wheel" given the extremely graphic body horror experienced by Julius, the antagonist of said story. Scott confirmed on Reddit that the changed was because the cover for The Breaking Wheel was too scary, and showed what it really looked like.
• The synopsis for "Pizza Kit" states that Marley's friend goes missing in the factory, implying that the story would have been set from Marley's perspective and focused on Payton going missing; however, the story proper is set from Payton's perspective and Marley is the one who goes missing.
• The synopsis for "Friendly Face" originally named the main character as Andrew, a name recognizable from the previous Epilogues. Since Jake had gotten his origin story in "The Real Jake", most people thought we would finally get an origin for Andrew as well. Instead, the story's main character turned out to be named Edward and the synopsis was soon updated to match.

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