It’s hard to believe that ten years have passed since the first Nights at Freddy’s. The small indie horror series, which became famous mainly for YouTuber jump scares, has now grown into a huge media franchise that even produced the most successful horror film of 2023 last year.
As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations, there were all sorts of new announcements of books, spin-offs and information about the upcoming film, which is due to be released in late 2025. However, people were particularly excited about the promised news from Steel Wool Studios, which was responsible for the last really big entries in the series with FNAF: Security Breach (currently free on PS+) and the associated DLC Ruin. There was speculation about a possible add-on to the VR spin-off FNAF: Help Wanted II, but a completely new game seemed rather unlikely.
The reactions to the teaser trailer for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic are correspondingly euphoric. In the 25 seconds of the trailer (not counting the logos) you actually only see a music box with a figure wearing a clown mask looking out of it. But in typical FNAF fashion, there is of course much more beneath the surface.
Why is this such a big deal for the fans?
Since the first FNAF book came out a few years ago, there has been a debate in the community about whether the books and games take place in the same timeline. The short stories often use characters and motifs from the games or are very similar to them, but do not tell the same sequence of events. In the finale of FNAF: Security Breach, the Mimic, an animatronic from one of the short stories that was not considered canon until then, suddenly appeared. This called into question pretty much everything fans thought they knew about the complicated FNAF story.
>>If Freddy and his colleagues have left you cold so far: (Almost) the entire FNAF story explained
If you comb through the trailer for Secret of the Mimic frame by frame, you will briefly spot the year 1979 at the end. If you then take into account the 70s carpet on which the music box stands, it could be the earliest entry in the FNAF timeline. Several decades before the time at which, according to current theories, the Mimic was actually built.
So once again there are a lot of question marks hanging over the heads of theory crafters. However, we will have to wait until 2025, because that is when Secret of the Mimic will be officially released and (hopefully) answer some of the questions.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic – Teaser Debut Trailer
Teaser trailer for the new Five Nights at Freddy’s part from Steel Wood Studios.
