Josh Hutcherson on Recreation Accuracy & Working WithAnimatronics

With 5 Nights At Freddy’s 2 lower than a month from its theatrical launch, star Josh Hutcherson is teasing what followers of the decade-old recreation franchise can anticipate. Following up on 2023’s 5 Nights At Freddy’s, the movie stars Hutcherson as former Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza safety guard Mike Schmidt as he navigates the fallout of coping with haunted killer animatronics on the pizzeria.

It additionally options Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Wayne Knight, McKenna Grace, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard, with Megan Fox and YouTuber Matthew “MatPat” Patrick offering voices for animatronics. The story of the movie will see Mike and his youthful sister Abby (Rubio) pulled again into the mysteries and murders surrounding Freddy’s and its villainous creator, William Afton (Lillard).

Curiously, Hutcherson did not go into 5 Nights At Freddy’s with loads of prior franchise data. Beginning in 2014, the 5 Nights At Freddy’s recreation franchise, typically abbreviated as FNAF, grew to become a viral hit, largely on account of Let’s Performs and theories by YouTubers corresponding to MatPat and Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach. Now, it’s a multimedia juggernaut with a stronghold within the Gen Z and Gen Alpha demographics. Talking with Selection, the Starvation Video games star revealed that he didn’t know the extent of 5 Nights At Freddy’s “completely rabid fanbase” upon becoming a member of the movie.

“There’s, like, sure guidelines of the sport that…” Hutcherson mentioned, trailing off whereas explaining that he nonetheless would not “absolutely get” the video games. Regardless of this, he mentioned that game-accuracy was a precedence in making the sequel. “The primary focus is making one thing that the FNAF fandom will go loopy for,” he added. “Generally I’m like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense! How can I probably do that?’ And so they’re like, ‘It’s from the sport.’” Nonetheless, Hutcherson mentioned he is “on board, however it’s loopy.“

Hutcherson additionally mentioned the pitfalls of working with absolutely sensible animatronics. Created by the Jim Henson Creature Store, these are achieved by puppetry, wearable fits, and a few animatronic components. He famous that as a result of 5 Nights At Freddy’s 2 has “greater than double” the animatronics, together with one which required “a workforce of 10 or 12 folks to function” known as Mangle.

Explaining the method of filming with the animatronics, Hutcherson said: “The stunt actor has to show and look to the correct, however then three folks with distant controls need to make the eyes time with the blink. You’ll do 10 takes, as a result of the animatronic motion isn’t fairly working. That one take [where] the animatronic is ideal, you higher be good too, as a result of that’s the one which’s going within the film.”

“And the animatronics might discover a solution to depart the pizzeria, which is an enormous deal,” concluded Hutcherson, teasing what followers can anticipate within the upcoming sequel. 5 Nights At Freddy’s 2 releases in theaters on December 5, 2025.