Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Movie First Look Confirms Matthew Lillard’s Return

The first look at the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie has been revealed and it confirms Matthew Lillard will return as the villainous William Afton. Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the most popular video game franchises out there, having an incredibly large following with younger audiences. The series began in the mid-2010s as a crude horror game where players play as a security guard in a haunted Chucky Cheese-esque restaurant and are tasked with surviving the night while watching security cameras. Five Nights at Freddy’s began to take off when big YouTubers started playing it and reacting to its intense jump scares. It wouldn’t be long before numerous Five Nights at Freddy’s sequels would get spawned thanks to its success.

Its success and younger-skewing audience allowed creator Scott Cawthorn to expand the series into other mediums as well, such as books made in a partnership with Scholastic. A Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was also greenlit, but it took the better part of a decade for it to actually finally get made. The film starring Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutchinson was a massive hit, making almost $300 million in theaters on a $20 million budget while also being available to stream on Peacock day and date. Shortly after its release, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was greenlit as a film and the creative team behind the movie got to work on developing a script.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Movie First Images Reveal Matthew Lillard Returns as William Afton

At the end of 2024, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 began filming with a December 2025 release date scheduled. Not much is known about the sequel or if it will directly adapt the second game, but we have gotten our first look at the film and it reveals a few clues about what to expect from the horror sequel. The new behind the scene images for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 come courtesy of YouTuber Dawko who was given three images to share for a charity stream centered around the Los Angeles wildfires. The most notable Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 image confirms the return of Matthew Lillard’s William Afton who is believed to be dead after the first film.

Given Lillard looks to be totally okay in this image, it’s safe to assume this is likely a flashback prior to the events of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s. It’s unclear exactly how much he will be in the film or if he will find a way to come back from his fatal injuries, but at the very least, fans can expect more Afton. On top of that, there’s another Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 image of a toy called “Faztalker” which looks like it lets users talk into it and then the device speaks back through a text box. The text on the toy reads “You there?” This fuels speculation that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will feature the toy versions of the animatronics.

The last Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 image is artwork of Freddy Fazbear on the floor of some building, possibly at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza or possibly some place related to the toy variants of the animatronics. You can view the images below.

It’s likely it will be a while before we get more concrete information about Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. The movie may still be filming, but if it is, it’s probably pretty close to wrapping up as shooting began in October or November. In terms of when we can expect a trailer, it likely won’t be until summer time. The first film’s trailer released in May before the full film’s October debut. Given Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is due out in December, we may not get the first trailer until closer to August. Of course, Universal could also decide to promote it at San Diego Comic-Con in July which would mean we’d get the first trailer a bit sooner.