In true Five Nights at Freddy’s fashion, the production of the first FNAF movie was needlessly convoluted. The movie was announced back in 2015, to be produced by Warner Bros. with series creator Scott Cawthon involved in the project. Two years later, the movie rights were turned over to Blumhouse, right before Cawthon announced that the project was canceled altogether (obviously, he was just trolling). The movie was eventually released in 2023, starring Matthew Lillard, Josh Hutcherson, and, most importantly, MatPat. The sequel came out in 2025.
But what did the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie look like in its early Warner Bros. days? YouTube DIY channel Geek Garage has some insights.
In the channel’s latest Patreon giveaway, Geek Garage sent out a very early version of the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie script, signed by Matthew Lillard, to one lucky recipient. As they explained in a Patreon post, the folks at Geek Garage previously worked in the film industry, “and as such have obtained some amazing original props, collectibles, and scripts in our personal collection.”
The screenplay in question was written by Gil Kenan and Tyler Burton Smith sometime between 2015 and 2017. According to Bill and Andrea at Geek Garage, “The story followed a group of four nerdy friends who called themselves ‘The Warlocks’ and made YouTube videos together. After stumbling upon the story of the dead security guard (Mike, whose demise happens in the first few pages) and five missing children, the group decides to sneak out to the old abandoned pizzeria to investigate what really happened. Also the owner was a totally different character, there was no William Afton in the script at all, which is ironic since we eventually had Matt sign it.”
“Overall, I remember it having more of a group vibe like The Goonies or Stranger Things with a pretty conventional setup/story and lacked real faithfulness to the source material and FNAF lore.”
As has been documented, the screenplay went through many wildly different iterations during preproduction (the “Silver Eyes” screenplay, the “Ghost Trackers” screenplay, and so on), and it’s unclear exactly which version of the script this is, as Bill and Andrea remember elements from several iterations. “I recall the script did have a whole underground workshop and even an underground amusement park…I also remember the main kid’s family was moving away from their town and he might have had a single mom…the plot was pretty familiar and used a lot of storytelling tropes so my memory is a bit hazy as it’s been quite a while since I read it.”
It seems like that’s all the information we’ll get about this strange early version of the script. Geek Garage and the screenplay recipient understandably wish to avoid copyright infringement, and won’t be discussing the script any further. “We’re not gatekeeping,” Geek Garage says. “We’re just following the law.”