The Two YouTubers Five Nights At Freddy's Fans Hope Are In The Film
The long-awaited cinematic adaptation of "Five Nights at Freddy's" is due out on October 27, 2023, and fan speculation is well underway. Is Matthew Lillard's Steve Raglan actually franchise baddie, William Afton? Is Elizabeth Lail's Vanessa going to be revealed as the villainous Vanny? And what's the deal with Mary Stuart Masterson's Aunt Jane? As heads swirl with questions and theories, fans can at least take solace in knowing ahead of time that "FNaF" will proudly feature cameos from some of the most popular gamers responsible for helping introduce Scott Cawthon's creepy survival game featuring possessed animatronics to the masses.
As has been confirmed by the trailer and from public acknowledgments, YouTubers 8-Bit Ryan, Baz, Razzbowski, FusionZGamer, and Dawko are all shown on Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria's "Employee of the Month" board. However, the biggest cameo appearance comes from CoryxKenshin, who plays the role of a cab driver. As shown in the trailer, he makes a stop in front of the pizzeria and picks up Abby Schmidt (Piper Rubio) and Golden Freddy. Fans were extremely hyped about catching all of these cameos, especially because all of the gamers featured have spoken highly about their experiences working on the film. Their inclusion is not only a fun perk for the fans who have been playing the games for years, but also a nice nod to the community that helped grow "FNaF" from an underground horror game to an international sensation.
But there were two seemingly glaring omissions of YouTubers who surely should have been included in the film in some way, given their influence in helping boost the popularity of "Five Nights at Freddy's" from the very beginning. Where are MatPat and Markiplier?
The (game) theory of MatPat
Matthew Robert Patrick aka MatPat is the creator of the "Theorists" brand of YouTube channels including The Film Theorists, The Food Theorists, The Style Theorists, and of course, The Game Theorists. As the name implies, the videos are based on theorizing, and MatPat is the undisputed champion of theorizing about "Five Nights at Freddy's" lore. That doesn't mean he's right 100 percent of the time, but Scott Cawthon has previously confirmed that MatPat has figured out plot points before it became confirmed canon within the games. This does mean that sometimes fans take his theories at face value, forgetting that a theory is just that — a theory.
"FNaF" lore is admittedly convoluted, and part of the fun of being a fan is trying to make sense of the sprawling landscape of characters, locations, timelines, and killings. Some of the lore of the franchise is not even included in the actual games but in the companion books and graphic novels. Not everyone has the time or desire to read all of them, so watching a MatPat video is a great way to gather information they might have missed. Regardless of anyone's personal opinion on MatPat as a creator or theorizer, he's a major part of why "FNaF" has gained such popularity. He offers a service of helping get new fans up to speed or help confused fans make sense of a pretty complicated franchise, even if he doesn't always get it right.
It seems odd to have a variety of YouTubers have cameos in "FNaF" without including MatPat, but as of publication, he's not been confirmed to appear. He's done some trailer reaction videos that show him commenting on the cameos of his colleagues but has not said anything regarding his own involvement. So either he's not involved, or he's hiding a pretty big secret.
Markiplier: King of FNaF
For the record, calling Markiplier the "King of FNaF" is a loving nod to the endless debate within the fandom about who is the true "King" of the franchise, not a declarative title. While MatPat may be the person responsible for making sense of the lore, Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier is hands down the biggest contributor to the original "Five Nights at Freddy's" game making the leap from a fun indie game to a bonafide phenomenon. Markiplier was not the first YouTuber to play "FNaF," but his already extremely popular channel meant that his playthrough was the introduction for millions. His first video playing the game, titled "WARNING: SCARIEST GAME IN YEARS | Five Nights at Freddy's – Part 1," is his most-watched Let's Play video, ever, and he's been consistently uploading videos for over a decade. Is he the best player? Not by a long shot. Is he the most fun to watch get scared out of his mind? Yeah, probably.
The success of "Five Nights at Freddy's" is genuinely inspiring, because it's one of the truest examples of a homegrown success story. This is a game that became popular without the backing of a major name like Nintendo or Playstation, nor did it have a massive marketing campaign behind it to guarantee people would find it. There are countless indie horror games that deserve to be as well known as "Resident Evil" or "Silent Hill" that disappear into the void of forgotten Twitch streams, so to see a game like "FNaF" break out is nothing short of a miracle. And to deny the importance of Markiplier's influence on that breakout is simply ahistorical.
Same as with MatPat, if Markiplier is in the film, it's being kept under wraps. Regardless, fans can soon see him star in his feature directorial debut, "Iron Lung," the film adaptation of the video game of the same name.