Matthew Lillard has opened up about taking on the role of William Afton in the Five Nights at Freddy’s film franchise, which may very well see him play the supervillain in many more movies to come.
“I had no idea sort of what I was getting into when we started. I didn’t play Five Nights, but my kids did. And so when the offer came through, it was my middle kid, Ace, who was like, you have to take this job. William Afton is this huge role,” Lillard tells GamesRadar+. “And same with the director [Emma Tammi]. The director’s like, look, there’s not a lot to do in the first movie, but he’s the center of the universe in terms of evil. And having been left out of many a sequel, I was very excited about the idea of being able to lean into a community. You know, at some point very early on, the creator of the game [Scott Cawthon]. He said in a year or so, people aren’t gonna be able to imagine William Afton without thinking about you.”
William Afton, the co-owner and founder of Fazbear Entertainment, is the child-killing, serial murderer at the center of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. In the games and in the film, the animatronics are possessed by the spirits of Afton’s victims – and they are out for revenge.
Lillard is known as something of a pop culture icon for starring in Wes Craven’s Scream, SLC Punk!, Hackers, both the live-action Scooby-Doo and modern-day animated movies. Millennials know him mostly as Shaggy, and now a new generation of kids will know him as William Afton (which is pretty darn cool if you ask me).
Though the plot details have yet to be revealed, the sequel will most likely follow the events and characters of the second game. The first film grossed $297.2 million against a budget of $20 million and became a huge streaming hit, breaking records for both Peacock and Blumhouse. Critics, however, largely disliked the film, with many horror fans chiming in about the pic’s overall lack of violence and gore because of the PG-13 rating. However, after Blumhouse shared a behind-the-scenes photo of (what we believe) is Mangle, a favorite animatronic among fans…we think the second pic might be going in a bloodier direction.
“And I thought that was sort of like drinking your own Kool-Aid. I was like, well, I don’t know if that’s gonna be… I don’t you, know? The reality is that I’ve been so lovingly embraced by the FNAF community that It’s really humbling,” Lillard continues. “And so I’m thrilled to be a part of it. I’m thrilled to give them the next iteration of the story. I think they’re gonna love it. I think that we learned a lot. I think that we all sort of learned a lot from what people wanted in the first film.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is set to hit theaters on December 5, 2025. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond.