Five Nights At Freddy's: How The Film Sets Up A Major Sequel Villain
Contains spoilers for "Five Nights at Freddy's"
After a successful line of video games and establishing a passionate fan empire online, "Five Nights at Freddy's" has finally arrived at a movie theater near you ... also on Peacock. Fans will surely love how the film does justice to the games, giving the signature animatronics, like Freddy, Chica, and Foxy, plenty of time to shine. And of course, there are ample Easter eggs for devotees to consume, including one that could set up some more dastardly misadventures for a sequel.
A running gag throughout the movie involves characters stumbling upon a small, cheeky-looking animatronic holding a balloon, whom fans will instantly recognize as Balloon Boy. At first, it seems like he's there only to provide jump scares, but in the mid-credits scene, Balloon Boy winds up in the taxi driver's cab, with the implication he's just as dangerous as Freddy and his friends.
In the games, Balloon Boy makes his debut in "Five Nights at Freddy's 2," so his inclusion in the movie seems to set him up for an appearance in a prospective sequel. He's a secondary antagonist in the game, and interestingly, he doesn't actually try to kill the player. Instead, he laughs menacingly and disables the flashlight and air vent lights, making the player more prone to an attack from one of the other murderous animatronics at Freddy's.
Could Balloon Boy learn to kill for a Five Nights at Freddy's sequel?
Balloon Boy certainly lives up to his mischievous ways in the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie, and if a sequel ever materializes, he could introduce a whole new facet to the terror any new characters would experience. It's one thing to try to run away from Freddy or Foxy. They're pretty big, and people could hear and see them coming. But Balloon Boy is fairly innocuous looking and can get into areas the other animatronics can't. Balloon Boy may not kill in the games, but it would be a nice surprise for fans to see him get some blood on his hands the next time around.
Balloon Boy goes on to appear in a more limited capacity across later "Five Nights at Freddy's" games. But he isn't the only new addition to terrify players. In the event a "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie sequel does happen, the filmmakers are going to have to up the ante in some way. Other animatronics do get introduced, such as the Puppet and Circus Baby, and there are also variations of the main bots we see in the current movie.
As fans know all too well, there's a ton of lore within this franchise for future movies to explore. Balloon Boy is the tip of the iceberg, and while the end of "Five Nights at Freddy's" suggests some kind of justice has been served, there's always more evil out there.