Five Nights At Freddy’s Star Josh Hutcherson Teases A Scarier Sequel

Last year, the film adaptation of Five Nights At Freddy’s was an unexpected hit at the box office, and a sequel was confirmed earlier this year. Josh Hutcherson will reprise his role from the first film as Mike Schmidt, a night guard at a restaurant haunted by the souls of murdered children whose spirits live in disturbing animatronic creations. According to Hutcherson, the sequel is not only going to introduce more animatronics, it will also be scarier than the original.

“It’s gonna be scarier,” Hutcherson told Esquire in a new interview. “It’s much bigger; the stakes are higher… There’s more animatronics being brought in, different animatronics being brought in, and the world just opens up in a big way.”

The film will reportedly be based on the Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 video game, which introduced the Puppet and Balloon Boy animatronics alongside the returning creatures Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. Hutcherson didn’t disclose any plot details, but he did mention that it will expand the world.

“We’re finding the balance right now of building this world and expanding it in a really cool way but also making sure the characters stay really grounded,” said Hutcherson. “That’s something that I really think that we all fought for in the first film, because this world that was created in Five Nights at Freddy’s, it’s so out-there. It’s so over-the-top and wacky, in a way, that to find the emotional truth of the characters was gonna be what was gonna work.”

Thus far, Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard are the only cast members from the first film confirmed to return for the sequel. Five Night’s At Freddy’s 2 will hit theaters on December 5, 2025.