After the major success of “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” a movie released in 2023, fans have been anticipating when the new film would be released in theaters. Now, with “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” to release on December 5th, audiences are readying themselves for yet another night of horror, jumpscares, and lore drops—along with both the return of the original animatronics and a new set of characters.

However, what’s to be expected from the sequel? How exactly will it expand on the frightening story that has captivated fans since 2014?

While the new movie has been highly anticipated, the first movie did more than just bring the indie horror game to life—it reignited fans’ obsession with its seemingly never-ending lore. 

The movie introduced audiences to Mike Schmidt, a night security guard assigned to nightwatch the famous family entertainment business—Freddy’s Pizzeria. Major lore drops as well as anticipated scenes dropped, from the five missing children to the role William Afton plays. Fans immediately took the movie as a chance to dissect every frame, theorizing about how this new story connected to the previous games. 

While some praised the film for the nostalgia it brought, others yearned for darker storytelling. Moreover, the new film offers a new opportunity for a much creepier approach—and the new trailer encapsulates just that as the video is scattered with new characters like the bare-boned Mangle and withered original animatronics. 

Overall, the new trailer gives fans an idea about the sequel’s themes, opening with the drawback of Vanessa Shelly’s recurring nightmares of her dad, Afton, before showing that he is still evidently present, returning in his Springbonnie costume that had previously mutilated his body. 

Afterwards, we get a look at the catastrophic history of the original diner, including its history of the missing and murdered children. The original location will ultimately play a massive role as the trailer devotes plenty of attention to its uncanny exterior. 

After the rather spine-chilling shots of all the animatronics waking up, the trailer launches its montage of various versions of the animatronics waking up, terrorizing the various homes and overall town, followed by a scare with Mangle at the end. 

Despite the previous movie not being recognized for its scare factors and rather its design and overall story, the lore from the games tells a much different story, as YouTubers like MatPat have theorized. 

While movie producers are only able to fit so much into the films they construct, the games are able to tell a story unlike any other the gaming community has seen—especially in horror. 

Since FNAF’s (Five Nights at Freddy’s) release in 2014, 1139 FNAF fan games have been released, and while not directly in terms of story and build, indie games have become popularized. Games like Bendy and the Ink Machine, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Tattletail have been so hyped because of the exact formulation that FNAF has created—horror with a mix of storytelling, often or not, along with unclear lore ready to be dissected. 

FNAF has had such a profound impact on media, and for good reason—the jumpscares are horrifying, and just as you think you understand the full story, the creator, Scott Cawthon, drops another book or game. 

That’s what also makes it so fun. While it was explicit who exactly our main character was in the first movie, the games don’t make it so easy, especially when the games were much newer. From the beginning, it’s unclear why exactly our character is working a night shift—complaints about “odor” from the decomposition of the main character’s body. 

Additionally, in further games like FNAF Ultimate Custom Night—theorists theorize that Golden Freddy’s body was held by an unrelenting spirit, tormenting the player you play as, William Afton, over and over again, the more you die from the exact animatronics he had once created. However, it’s clear in all the games that you are not always the same person—and the timeline isn’t on the same path that the games have released—making the lore much more complicated overall. 

With so many details, FNAF is a story that has yet to end or be fully dissected, and with the franchise’s second movie releasing, fans are more than excited to see what storytelling and visuals it may hold.