“Five Nights at Freddy’s,” released last Halloween, was an unexpected smash, making almost $300 million at the worldwide box office despite being released concurrently on Peacock. (It also obliterated the much more expensive “Exorcist” sequel, also from Universal and released around the same time.)
So it’s not much of a surprise that Universal and Blumhouse have officially given the go-ahead to a “Five Nights at Freddy’s” sequel, news they debuted at CinemaCon. There is no date announced but a return to Freddy’s is imminent.
The first film was based on the popular “Five Nights at Freddy’s” videogame series by Scott Cawthon, who also produced the feature adaptation alongside Jason Blum and co-wrote the screenplay with Seth Cuddeback and Emma Tammi. Tammi also directed. It followed a young security guard (Josh Hutcherson) who works guarding an abandoned pizzeria called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a kind of Chuck E. Cheese. Only in this place the animatronic characters are inhabited by spirits and kill whoever crosses their path.
Soon enough the young security guard uncovers a much darker mystery that could endanger his entire family.
The animatronic costumes were built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which gave the production a lovely, lost in the 1980’s aesthetic. The movie’s PG-13 rating made it an accessible watch for the younger crowd, who fueled its runaway box office success and allowed it to be last year’s must-watch Halloween movie. (There was even a section of Universal’s popular Halloween Horror Nights event devoted to the movie.)
A sequel seemed like a sure thing, especially because Hutcherson has mentioned they are already hard at work on one. It’s unclear who else from the first movie might return, both in front of and behind the camera, although there were some Easter eggs, including a mid-credits scene, that pointed in the potential direction of the follow-up.
