Who Is Cassie In Five Nights At Freddy's And Will She Be In The Movie?
With the long-awaited release of Universal and Blumhouse's adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" coming this Halloween, horror fans unfamiliar with the long-running video game series of the same name have been trying to catch up on all of the lore in preparation. The original point-and-click survival horror game is extremely easy to understand (be a security guard and don't die from evil animatronics coming to life to kill you) but has since expanded to 13 games and 32 books/graphic novels. That's a hell of a lot of ground to cover, and an impossibility for a single film to capture. With both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists currently on a dual strike until the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers provides an acceptable contract for both unions, there hasn't been a whole lot of information released regarding the film.
As part of the strike rules, actors are not permitted to do press tours or promote the film in any way, so there's a good chance fans are just going to have to be patient and wait until release to discover which plot elements of the gaming franchise made it into the feature film. This means that fan speculation is running wild, and a question that keeps coming up time and again is in regard to the series' most recent protagonist. Will Cassie make an appearance in the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie? Let's examine.
An introduction to Cassie
Cassie is the main protagonist of the "Ruin" DLC for "Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach." The eighth installment of the "FNAF" series and the thirteenth game overall, "Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach" sees the player as Gregory, a young boy trapped overnight in Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex. The goal is to survive the night while also learning the truth about the Pizzaplex with help from Freddy himself, who is an ally this time around. The "Ruin" DLC has players take on the role of Cassie, a friend of Gregory who is lured into the Pizzeria by her pal. In actuality, Cassie is lured in by the antagonist known as The Mimic, who uses Gregory's voice to trick her. Cassie is a huge fan of the animatronic Roxanne Wolf, even wearing Roxy-themed light-up shoes throughout the game.
Cassie doesn't have an intricate origin story like many of the other game protagonists, seemingly serving as a placeholder for Gregory after making it out of the Pizzaplex with Glamrock Freddy's help. Cassie is at risk of becoming the game's latest victim, but as the animatronics are controlled by the Mimic, neither character is a victim of the animatronics' bite. Cassie's fate is also left with an ambiguous ending, so she has the potential to appear in future games as the main protagonist.
The lore sounds a bit confusing because, well, it is. As "FNAF" gained popularity and expanded its scope, new characters, stories, villains, and powers were introduced. If your only familiarity is with the first viral game, there's a lot to catch up on.
Will Cassie be in the film?
While we certainly can't judge a film based solely on a trailer, it does not look like Cassie will appear in the "FNAF" film adaptation. However, given the rabid fanbase of the series, if the film performs well, it's very possible that Cassie will eventually make an appearance. However, in order for her story to make sense within the canon of "FNAF," we'd have to see the introduction of Gregory and The Mimic as well. We already know that the film will be dealing with security guard Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) and the franchise's main baddie, William Afton (Matthew Lillard), indicating that the film will stay within the story confines of the original Clickstream series. The Mimic is the main antagonist of the Cooperative Series, which are all the games ported for simulated/interactive experiences like virtual-reality and augmented-reality.
Honestly, it might be cool if Blumhouse and Universal took a similar approach as "Be Mine," the Valentine's Day horror short film crafted in VR by Eli Roth and Adam MacDonald. The film is a 30-minute immersive slasher with 180 and 360-degree visuals starring Peyton List ("Cobra Kai"), Inanna Sarkis ("Seance"), and Alanna Ubach ("Euphoria"). If the "FNAF" film performs well, they could pay homage to the Cooperative Series plot of the games with a series of VR feature films. This is obviously some serious wish fulfillment as this would be a ginormous (and pricey) venture, but it would make for a poetic, full-circle moment for both Cassie and Gregory. Or, you know, they could just take over as the leads in a narrative feature sequel once Hutcherson and Lillard tire of playing their roles.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" arrives in theaters and on Peacock on October 27, 2023.