After making us wait for eight years, the Five Nights at Freddy’s feature film (opens in new tab) finally got a debut date last month: It’s slated to hit the big screens on October 27. And, like clockwork, a month after that announcement was made, an unfinished version of the first official trailer has leaked, a development that Five Nights creator Scott Cawthon said left him “really, really disheartened.”
Cawthon wrote on Reddit (opens in new tab) that he first heard about the leak while at an amusement park with his kids, so he couldn’t fully see what had happened. He said he tried to ignore the reports and enjoy his day, but of course that didn’t work out too well.
“I know that Blumhouse and Universal (and me too) have all worked very hard to make something really exciting to share,” Cawthon wrote. “So the thought of a first-look being spoiled was frustrating, and I was really dreading coming home to see what all had happened while I was away.”
To his surprise (and, frankly, mine), he found there was a lot of pushback against the leak from members of the Five Nights community, including streamers who refused to do videos about it, and forum mods barring discussion of the trailer. And it looks to be true: There are a few Five Nights movie reaction videos posted on YouTube, but not nearly as many as I would’ve expected. Cawthon acknowledged that it’s basically impossible to keep people from spoiling things for others (as much as one can spoil a trailer), but said it was “really encouraging” to see so many members of the community refusing to take part in it.
“So, to the fanbase, and to all of the Twitter accounts, YouTube accounts, moderators, and other people who pushed back against this; thank you,” Cawthon wrote. “I started my day at Humanity -1, but ended the day at Humanity +100.”
Cawthon added, probably correctly, that people who ignore the leaked trailer and wait for “a finished product that is edited and polished, with VFX and proper sounds” will likely have a much better time with it.
We still don’t know much about the Five Nights at Freddy’s film except that Shaggy’s gonna be, like, the bad guy (opens in new tab), the hero will be played by Hunger Games punching bag Josh Hutcherson, and Mary Stuart Masterson will appear as Female Villain, which believe it or not is one of the top-billed roles. The full cast and other details are up at IMDB (opens in new tab).