Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie Announced

Social media has lit up with a rumor that there will be a Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. Is this true or false?

There was a hoax announcement in 2014, but a real announcement came in 2015.

November 2014: Movie Hoax

The 2014 rumor appeared to be based on a Wikipedia entry in an article entitled “2017 in film.” There was an entry listing a “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie for 2017 starring the voice talents of Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Dee Bradley Baker, and John DiMaggio.

The entry was removed on November 17, 2014, but fans of the franchise have continued to circulate screen shots, as seen in the example below.

The movie listing cited several sources, none of which actually stated that a movie was forthcoming. It also cited an unnamed Sony Picture movie listed at Box Office Mojo, which at this time has no title and only states that it is an unnamed movie to be announced. Note that the Wikipedia entry listed Columbia/Paramount, not Sony.

April 2015: Movie Announced

In April 2015, The Hollywood Reporter published an article which confirmed that Warner Bros. had picked up Five Nights at Freddy’s for a movie adaptation. It will be produced by Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, and Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg of KatzSmith Productions.

Grahame-Smith noted, “We’re looking forward to working with Scott to make an insane, terrifying and weirdly adorable movie.”

No date has been announced, no voice actors have been named, and the project is currently “out to writers,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s is an indie point-and-shoot video game developed and released by Cawthon in August 2014. Due to the game’s popularity, a prequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, was released on November 11, 2014. A third installment followed on March 2, 2015. It appears that the popularity of the second release may have spurred some wishful thinking fans into inserting a false Wikipedia entry regarding the non-existent movie.

A fourth installment of the video game series was announced in April 2015. Teasers and images have since followed for the game which is slated to be released on Halloween 2015, although the game released early on July 23, 2015.

See this article addressing a rumor in March 2015 about hidden messages allegedly in the game creator’s website.

Bottom Line

There was a false rumor in late 2014 about a Five Nights at Freddy’s motion picture to be released in 2017. That rumor appears to have started from an erroneous Wikipedia entry for 2017 films, which has since been removed. In April 2015, it was announced that Five Nights at Freddy’s would be adapted to film, but no date or voice actors have been set. A fourth installment of the video game franchise is slated for a Halloween 2015 release.

Updated June 26, 2015