The Creative Process Behind Five Nights At Freddy's Movie Revealed by Matthew Lillard

The Inspiration Behind the Movie

Matthew Lillard, one of the stars of this year's Five Nights At Freddy's, revealed in a recent interview the specific inspirations behind the film. Based on the video game franchise of the same name that began in 2014, there are nine core titles currently in the series as well as several spin-offs. The movie adaptation stars The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson, Scream's Matthew Lillard, and You's Elizabeth Lail.

Matthew Lillard as Steve Raglan on the Phone in Five Nights at Freddy's

In a recent interview with Screen Rant about Five Nights At Freddy's, Lillard discussed the creative process behind the movie. Despite there being an extremely large amount of lore and storyline to pull from, the actor revealed that the horror movie only pulls from a select few entries in the Five Nights At Freddy's franchise. Check out the full quote below: Matthew Lillard: Yeah. Early on I said to Scott, "There's 20 some odd games. There's books galore. What do you want me to focus on? What's essential?" And he said to me clearly, "Look, the first three games are where we're taking the movie from."

The Five Nights At Freddy's Games Have Many Movies Left In Them Considering how much of the universe's lore established in the games didn't make it into the movie, there's a slew of untouched material that could be used in future movies. In an interview earlier this year, Lillard teased the potential of future FNAF sequels and the involvement of his character. When the Scream actor signed onto the movie, his contract included three films total, making it clear William Afton will be returning in some form and that there are indeed multiple more series entries in the works.

With the first film deriving all of its story line from the first three games, it barely touched the surface of what the overall universe has to offer. As Lillard mentioned, there aren't only mainline games, but spin-offs and even entire novels that can be drawn from in the future. It's unclear how much the new entries will want to stick to the already-established canon versus carving their own narrative path, but regardless of what awaits the franchise, Five Nights At Freddy's has a wealth of areas left to explore.