‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ Ending Explained: Why We Think Matthew Lillard May Return for a ‘FNAF’ Movie Sequel

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock Premium, just in time for Halloween weekend.

Based on the popular horror video game series of the same name, Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Mr. Peeta Bread himself, Josh Hutcherson, as a security guard tasked with watching over an abandoned family fun center. Unfortunately for him, it turns out the animatronic mascots are secretly sentient murdering machines. Fun!

Also starring Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard, this is a fairly straightforward horror movie from Blumhouse Productions. But like most horror movies, the Five Nights at Freddy’s ending leaves room for a sequel. Who could say no to that horror franchise money? Let’s get into the Five Nights at Freddy’s ending explained, and what we know about a possible Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie.

Five Nights at Freddy’s movie ending explained:

Spoiler alert: The man under the bunny suit, William Afton, is also the same career counselor guy who pushed Mike to become a security guard at Freddy’s in the first place. In other words, it’s horror movie veteran Matthew Lillard, who was once one of the original Ghostface killers in the first Scream movie. Fun!

William Afton was apparently a very evil man who both invented cutting-edge animatronics and also kidnapped and killed children. He’s the guy who kidnapped Mike’s brother, and, he reveals to Mike, that he also killed him. He also kidnapped and killed some other kids in the ’80s, and he put the remains of their bodies inside the animatronic machines. The ghosts of those dead children now haunt those machines. Even though the kids don’t want to hurt Mike and Abby, they are being controlled by Afton.

But Mike remembers something that Abby’s teacher told him: Pictures are powerful images for children. The animatronics really like Abby’s drawings, so in order to release them from Afton’s control, she needs to draw a picture that shows them who he really is. So she draws a picture of Afton in his bunny costume murdering them. It works! The animatronics turn on Afton. His own animatronic machine stabs him. Mike and Abby are able to escape as the other animatronics descend on Afton.

In the movie’s final scene—after we see that Mike and Abby are back to normal life and that Vanessa is alive but in a stab-wound-induced coma—we return to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza entertainment center. The lights are flickering, as usual. Then we see Afton in his bunny suit slowly dying. The ghost of the young blonde child that haunts the Freddy bear animatronic watches as Afton suffers. He shows no sign of regret, as he slowly closes the door on Afton.

It’s not clear who this kid is, though it’s implied that he might be the younger brother of Vanessa—which would make Afton his father, too. It’s also not clear if Afton actually dies in this scene, or if Freddy is keeping him alive for some future purpose. There’s also a bit of audio at the very end of the Five Nights at Freddy’s credits, which features a distorted electronic voice spelling out the letters, “COME FIND ME.” Spooky!

The rule in horror is: If you don’t see the dead body, they are coming back for the sequel! Clearly, this scene is setting up a movie for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Here’s what we know about the future Five Nights at Freddy’s movies.

Will there be a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie sequel?

While Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has not yet officially been announced, it seems likely that Universal will make a second and possibly third movie if this one does well in theaters. (And early box office predictions look good for that.) After all, there are at least nine games in the video game franchise, so there is plenty of more material to pull from. We also know that Matthew Lillard let slip on a podcast earlier this year that he signed a three-film contract for the franchise. So it sounds like Afton is not, in fact, dead.

That said, a movie for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 depends on how well the film does for Universal. If you want to see these animatronics back on the big screen, be sure to see the film in theaters—and tell your friends.