As explained by series creator Scott Cawthon, the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie has undergone several ideas and rewrites, all of which became canceled. Ranging from direct adaptations of Cawthon’s lore to less traditional stories that seemed as far removed from the series as the parody “FNAF 57: Freddy in Space,” the movie has had an odd evolution. However, it makes sense a popular series with eclectic lore would be challenging to adapt and struggle to find its way to the big screen.
A staple of modern horror gaming, Five Nights at Freddy’s was a nostalgic nightmare inspired by Chuck E. Cheese. Focused on the legacy of a pizzeria with a haunted past and killer animatronics, it didn’t take long for Freddy Fazbear to expand beyond video games. In 2015 Warner Bros. announced they had acquired the rights to develop a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. Although, after having been passed between several filmmakers, including Gil Kenan and Chris Columbus, the animatronic horror movie's release was delayed indefinitely.
The difficulty in telling a Five Nights at Freddy’s story on the big screen was figuring out how to adapt its mysterious lore. Unlike many video games whose mythos tend to be straightforward and more cohesive, Scott Cawthon often challenged players to decipher his games’ plot through cryptic cutscenes, puzzles, and stories told in other timelines. Additionally, considering how much the tone and genre shifts throughout the Five Nights at Freddy's series, ranging from horror to sci-fi and even self-referential comedy, nailing down the onscreen experience was always going to hinder this movie. In a conversation (via Reddit) Scott Cawthorn discussed each of the ideas and angles that had been attempted for the Five Nights at Freddy's movie adaptation, and why the FNAF movie has been in development Hell for almost a decade.
The Misfit Kids
The first attempt at a Five Nights at Freddy's movie approached the idea of a younger cast confronting the supernatural, a popular premise as seen in movies such as IT, Stranger Things, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Scott Cawthon recollected a script focused on a girl and a single mother who move to a new town where “hilarity ensues” after finding a Freddy Fazbear restaurant. More comedic in tone, it wouldn’t be the only pitch that would deviate from FNAF’s horror roots. The series’ creator also talked about a potential script involving a boy who befriends Freddy after finding him in a pawnshop, leading to a quest to reunite the robotic entertainer with his lost friends.
Although it was a good idea to make films more oriented toward a younger audience, similar to R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, these screenplays don’t come without their share of difficulties. Cawthon suggested that the tone and the characters failed to shine through for some drafts. In the pawnshop script specifically, the series' creator lamented it felt more like a “boy and his animatronic" story than a horror movie. Although the latter sounded similar to the game Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, neither script delivered the kind of scares Cawthorn had envisioned for the film.
Animatronic Armies
The most offbeat and curious of the ideas presented for a Five Nights at Freddy’s film involved armies of animatronics. Simply called “F,” one story involved a group of teenagers breaking into an old Fazbear facility, only to discover that the government was manufacturing an animatronic militia from the franchise's technology. Then in probably the most bizarre concept mentioned by Cawthon, he doesn’t go into detail, but the name seems to say it all about his movie set in New York City, “Plushies Take Manhattan.”
Cawthon had strong words about the “F” script but mainly attributed its rejection to straying too far away from his games. As for “Plushies Take Manhattan,” the only thing ever said about what happened to this movie was that it was “burned with fire.” With such a strange premise of killer animatronics, it doesn’t hurt to embrace the delightfully campy elements like Willy’s Wonderland and The Banana Splits Movie did; however, it seems there are even things too strange for the FNAF film.
The "Ghost Trackers"
In two screenplays labeled “Ghost Trackers” and “Insane,” Cawthon toyed around with the idea of two movies with amateur paranormal investigators as the leads. A more character-driven experience, both stories had the “Ghost Trackers” investigating an abandoned pizzeria. However, the enigmatically entitled “Insane” involved secret ball-pit tunnels, the Funtime Animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location, and the creepy Marionette character seeking revenge.
Although a classic horror movie setup, Cawthon commented how far the “Ghost Trackers” themselves felt removed from the location they were investigating. There was a concern that it’d be more about the human characters and disconnected from the familiar faces that made Five Nights at Freddy’s a pop culture icon. Also, not unlike other FNAF movie ideas, the “Insane” pitch felt more like an action-adventure film than a horror movie. However, the need for more of a connection to Freddy Fazbear’s haunted past became reflected in other drafts of the film.
Silver Eyes
An experiment in storytelling, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes was one of the novels written by Kira Breed-Wrisley and Scott Cawthon. Following the character of Charlotte “Charlie” Emily, whose father designed the original Fazbear animatronics, the books were mysteries about her late father’s secrets and the horrors committed by his business partner William Afton. Although there were three screenplays based on the first novel, Cawthon also noted that the young adult horror novel very loosely inspired a “Random Charlie” script. In the planned “Random Charlie” movie, a group of characters sharing the same names as their novel and game counterparts were supposed to break into a pizzeria searching for a lost toy, where they’d presumably meet revenge-motivated robots.
Although Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes provided a more structured narrative and defined characters, the film failed to see the big screen. Cawthon reflected that it wasn’t a bad idea and had different elements that he liked, but he wanted a film more closely resembling the games. As for the “Random Charlie” script, the creator acknowledges that a lot of the film was FNAF-in name only, not unlike the Super Mario Bros. movie before it. Also, Cawthon expressed frustration over how small the stakes seemed for “Random Charlie.” Regardless, the thought of returning to the games for inspiration was something addressed in other Five Nights at Freddy’s scripts.
FNAF Origins
Hoping to elaborate more on the Five Nights at Freddy’s mythos, at some point in production a movie idea attempted to focus on two of the games’ most mysterious characters. The first script, entitled “Cassidy,” was supposed to be the story of one of the missing children who was presumably kidnapped by William Afton for his twisted experiments. The second pitch, called “Mike,” seemed to reference Mike Schmidt, the protagonist from the first game, who many later believed to be Afton’s son. Although both Mike and Cassidy have been referenced and appeared in other adaptations, both movies would likely have filled in the gaps in the games’ lore.
While “Cassidy” appeared to be a step in the right direction as a video game movie, the idea became more of an exposition drop than a film. Cawthon cited that the “visual encyclopedia” approach wasn’t narratively engaging and the reason why Cassidy’s story didn’t work. As for the movie based on Mike Schmidt, Cawthon noted it was the perfect amalgam of every FNAF movie idea so far and addressed most of their shortcomings. “Mike” was supposed to be as fun as it was scary with an engaging story that’d hopefully explain who the mysterious protagonist is. However, despite the enthusiasm behind what was supposed to be the definitive Five Nights at Freddy’s screenplay, in 2021 production company Blumhouse confirmed that “Mike” was no longer in development, leaving the fate of the movie’s future unknown.
For a game that managed to succeed in so many different media, it appears Five Nights at Freddy’s is still struggling to find its place in movie theaters. After so many attempts to adapt Scott Cawthon’s stories, it can't be denied that there was a genuine attempt to find a tale worth telling. Although Freddy Fazbear didn’t quite get the Hollywood treatment like Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s game over for the rest of the series and its impact on modern horror.