ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Five Nights at Freddy's 2 - POST-CREDITS Scene and Ending Explained!

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 left us on a huge cliffhanger, which might have exposed the truth about the Afton family and set up a perfect adaptation for the third movie. Welcome back Screencrush, I'm Ryan Airy, and we're going to break down the ending and post-credit scenes from the latest Five Nights at Freddy's film. Now, while this movie was mainly an adaptation of the second FNAF game, it did borrow many elements from later installments of the franchise, as well as aspects from the novels. Now, if you've only played the games, I can imagine that that ending left some of you confused, wondering what the hell this means for the films going forward. So let's start with that ending. After that big confrontation with the old animatronics showing the newer ones whose boss, we see Charlotte as the marionette, possessed Vanessa. Now we went over Charlie's endgame lore and death in our FNAF2 Easter egg video,

but in case you missed that, here's a little recap. Charlotte Emily was William Afton's first victim in the pizzeria. When she died, her soul possessed the puppet. And since then, she's been the protector of the other dead children within the animatronics. The others are under my protection. In the film, they focus on her rage toward all adults, since the adults present during her death failed to do anything to help. After she manipulates Abby to turn off the animatronics perimeter lock function, she escapes the pizzeria. Now Charlie is on a mission to get back at Afton for her murder and possess the closest person to him, his daughter, Vanessa.

The plotline is a complete departure from anything in the current lore, but I do think that it's borrowing from one book series in particular, Silver Eyes, which they directly reference in the final frame with Vanessa's eyes turning to Silver. So, a quick TLDR on the novel series. The trilogy follows Charlie as she returns to her hometown hurricane for a remembrance ceremony for her childhood friend Michael, who was among those murdered at Freddy's. Charlie and her group of friends head back to the abandoned pizzeria and discover that the animatronics are possessed by the children that were killed there years ago. Now, this brings up some repressed memories from Charlie's childhood, which leads her to look more into what happened in her youth. The books delve deeper into the Emmylies, explaining how Henry Emily was behind the robotic brain, behind the animatronics and how Afton twisted his inventions for his own evil schemes.

The biggest twist comes in the third book, the fourth closet, where it's revealed that the Charlie we've been following isn't the original Charlotte Emily. This Charlie is a highly advanced robotic creation that Henry built after his real daughter was murdered by Afton. Now while grieving his daughter, Emily created several different robotic iterations of Charlie, each mimicking stages of her life, a toddler, a small child, a teenager, and an adult. He programmed them all with false memories, editing and embellishing things to make this Charlie feel as real as possible. It's revealed that Henry never finishes the adult version, though, as he begins to realize that what he's doing is wrong.

This fourth unfinished version is then stolen by William Afton, who turns it into a vessel for his deceased daughter, Elizabeth. Now, this, of course, is Circus Baby. Yeah, geez, person, that's a lot, buddy. Just wait. So, I bring all that up to say, I think Vanessa is a robot. Now, there's a couple reasons for this.

One, in the films, it seems as though Vanessa is taking the place of a, Elizabeth Afton from the original lore. In the games and the books, Elizabeth was William's daughter who was accidentally killed by his Circus Baby Animatronic. Circus Baby was built with a claw inside of her stomach that would grab children, luring the men with her ice cream dispenser. When Elizabeth first saw Baby, she became obsessed with her and eventually got too close, leading to... After Elizabeth's possession of baby, we see the animatronic eye shift from blue to green, just like we saw in the film. I think that Vanessa, in place of Elizabeth, was killed by Circus Baby,

and her soul is already possessing that animatronic. Now, they show Circus Baby during her dream theory session, so we know that at some point in her childhood, Vanessa was that close to Circus Baby, close enough for her to get snatched. Now, this is where the Silver Eyes connection comes in. After the real Vanessa died, Afton went on to make a robot version of his daughter,

just as Henry did in the novels. This could also be the reason why she warns Charlie not to go after her father during the 1982 flashback. She has a vague recollection of how dangerous her father and his creations are, just like how in silver eyes, robot Charlie has flashes of memories from moments before her death. She doesn't know why she feels fear around certain things, but just has a general sense that something is wrong. Also, the way Afton speaks to her within the flashbacks makes it sound as though she were just another one of his animatronics. Now, of course, that could just be because he's an awful person, but I think it's deeper than that.

He specifically says to her, you have a purpose and you will always be mine, which I think he means in a literal sense. This Vanessa robot has a purpose to act as the daughter that he inadvertently killed. She will always be his because she's as much his property as all the other animatronics are. And as I mentioned earlier, her eyes turned silver when Charlie possesses her. Exactly how the graphic novels distinguish the Elizabeth Afton-possessed robot Charlie from the protagonist Charlie. Are we saw her in the first movie? How could she be a robot? Well, these are highly advanced robots programmed to be exactly like a real human. In the fourth closet graphic novel, we even see robot Charlie bleed, so it's possible for them to be injured.

The novelization of the first film also hints at this theory, constantly describing Vanessa's eyes as lights or computer generated. So what does this mean for FNAF3? Well, a few things. First, working under the assumption that Vanessa is a robot, I think Charlie is going to use this to get to Afton. We hear multiple times from Vanessa that her father is in her head. We're never going to be able to move forward until you deal with some of the mess you left in your head. Well, what if she means literally? Her game counterpart, Vanessa or Vanny, has Afton controlling her throughout the game. And the FNAF VR game helped wanted, while playing as a beta tester for an in-universe game,

Vanessa's mind gets hijacked by Afton in the form of glitch trap. Somehow, though, there was usable code on some of it, but then he started appearing. After her brainwashing, she then goes on to be the antagonist in the security breach game, wearing a bunny suit similar to Afton and going by the name Vanny. And in FNAF 2, they already hinted at Vanessa's transformations into Vanny. In some behind the scenes photos of the Afton's house, we can see two photos of a little Vanessa. One is on the beach with her tracing a robot in the sand, and the other is of her in a white rabbit costume, like the white rabbit costume she'll go on to wear in the future.

If Afton is literally in her head, I think Charlotte will use this to her advantage as a means to hunt him down. In the next film, we could see Vanessa slash the puppet go on to become Vanny, leaning into Afton's care for his favorite child and getting close to him before taking her revenge. The film ended with Mike and Abby both leaving her behind, so there could be no one to check up on her during her descent into felony. Yeah, but isn't Afton like, you're dead? Well, that's the thing about him, Doug. He's never really dead dead dead. You thought you'd never see me again, didn't you?

Well, too bad. I'm alive. Two years after his spring lock failure at the end of FNAF1, he's still alive and kicking. Oh, kind of. The first post-credit scene of the movie ends on an incredibly creepy after. Now spring trap and sets up perfectly for a five nights at Freddy's three adaptation. Now I want to take a second and remind you guys we're having a massive holiday sale right now. We have brand new designs like the new Doug ornament where he looks like Snoopy from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Happy Life Day, Bone Saw versus the human spider, a Fox Force 5 t-shirt,

and that's my secret. I'm always working with the whole cunched over his desk. In addition, we have tons of huge deals on our merch store, 40% off all apparel, 15% off collectibles, buy three get one mug and pint glasses, buy two shirts, get one 50% off, and hoodies, hats and bags are all 25% off, 30% off all our Star Wars parody merch and superhero merch and storewide, all product is 25% off. We're running this sale for a little bit longer through the holiday, so if there is a screen crush shirt that you've always wanted,

now is the time to buy. Links are below. Now, we think FNAF3 is an underrated masterpiece. Upon its release, it got mixed reviews from fans because of the vastly different game mechanics from those first two games. But I think those changes might actually work in favor of the film franchise. Phanaf 3 takes place 30 years after the events of Phanaf 1, and instead of being a night guard at a pizza place, you're guarding over the Fasbear

Fright haunted house attraction. The catch? A real animatronic is wandering the halls. William Afton himself stuck in the spring-locked bunny suit. Just like in the post-credit scene, the owners found Afton rotting away in a boarded-up back room. The Fasbair fright team then brought him into the attraction, thinking that he was nothing more than a relic of the Fasbear franchise. But, as Afton says, I always come back. They even have one of the characters blatantly say they're opening up for a new haunted house attraction, which is pulled directly from Five Nights 3.

One of the scavengers even says a line from Phone Guy in FNAF 3 when they find Springtrap. You're not going to believe that we found one. A real one. Yeah, but person, that's just one animal what you call it. That doesn't sound scary. Right, and that's where the new game mechanics can make this next film very interesting. As I said earlier, FNAF3 got some flack because it only featured one animatronic and no longer had the mechanics that fans were used to. But it introduced some really cool concepts like hallucinations and expanded on Afton's history. The characters in the movie have already experienced hallucinations and shadow figures within the pizzeria, so it would be a perfect next step in the franchise. Also, the missing

children that died at the end of FNAF2 could come back to haunt whoever is working at Fast Bear Frights, as we see in the game. But right about Henry Emily. Getting to him, Skeet Alwrich has already signed on for a third film. And based on the performance of both the first film in this one, I have a good feeling that this franchise has to stick around on screen for as long as the games have. The credits end with Henry Emily relaying a message to Mike about the dangers of Afton, calling back to his cassette tapes and Pizza Simulator. Begin tape, leaving Dead Space 3, 2, 1. Which I believe will be the game that they combine with FNAF 3 for the next film. The movie adaptations thus far tend to pick and choose elements from all across the franchise. So, it's not out of the realm of possibilities for them

to use both game plot lines. The two games have a lot in common to and would be the perfect setting for a confrontational finale, which it's setting up to be. Pizza Simulator's plot revolves around Henry Emily devising a plan to finish Afton off once and for all. He hires Michael Afton to salvage any animatronics that fit a certain criteria and lock them within the building. Then he sets the place ablaze. Both that game and FNAF 3 end with huge fire, so it would make sense to merge the two endings. In this next film, we can have Mike Schmidt take the spot of Michael Afton and work in tandem with Henry Emily. From the end of FNAF 2, we know that Michael Afton is set on finding his father,

and Vanessa slash Charlotte will presumably be after him as well. This could all converge on the Fasbear Frights location, letting Henry set his final plan into motion and deliver one of the coldest lines in the series. Although for one of you, the darkest pit of hell has opened to swallow you whole, so don't keep the devil waiting, friend. But I want to know what you guys think. Do you think that we'll see Vanny in the next FNAF movie, or will they save that for further down the road?

Are you excited to see more of Purple Guy? Big shout out to Lee Mazio who wrote this video. You can find his links below and let us know what you think down in the comments. Or you can find me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads, or are free to join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, welcome to the channel. Please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.