Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 director reveals “biggest challenge” of sequel’s animatronics

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will introduce new animatronics, but as director Emma Tammi told Dexerto, the “biggest challenge” wasn’t bringing them to life.

The horror sequel is primarily linked to the second Five Nights at Freddy’s game, with Kellen Goff, Megan Fox, and MatPat taking on the respective voice roles of Toy Freddy, Toy Chica, and Toy Bonnie.

Once again, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is behind the making of the animatronics, a major win given their practical designs were one of the first film’s strongest assets. Alongside the Toy versions, fan favorite characters like Mangle and The Puppet, aka Marionette will also be making their debut. 

Dexerto caught up with Tammi ahead of the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 premiere to talk about what challenges this brought to production.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 animatronics created new challenge

Universal Pictures

In the sequel, the animatronics step outside into the real world, but the biggest headache wasn’t operating them in the wild – it was stopping spoilers from leaking.

“The biggest challenge was keeping everything under wraps,” Tammi told us. 

“You start bringing animatronics or really any other thing outside of the sound stage, outside of the very controlled environment that we’re filming on, and bring them out into the elements… we were just afraid that anyone would get a glimpse,” Tammi told us. 

“And that glimpse would ruin something for specifically the fan base, but also just the wider audience. We didn’t want any spoilers to get out there because we’re really hoping that come December 5th, people are still excited to go out in the theater because they haven’t seen it all.”

“We’re so lucky to have such an enthusiastic fan base, so eyes are everywhere, and these days it’s like drones are in the sky. It was just hard to physically keep things covered,” the filmmaker added. 

“But I think we’ve done a pretty good job. A couple more weeks to go, but I think most of what we were hoping to retain as a surprise is still under wraps.”

While on the press round for the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, Tammi revealed that the Foxy animatronic caught on fire when the servos overheated. Thankfully, it was swiftly taken care of and there were no other malfunctions. 

When asked if any similar situations unfolded when shooting the sequel, the director explained that they managed to avoid any meltdowns. 

“ There were so many more stunts with the animatronics in this film that there was just a lot more to technically figure out with them,” Tammi explained. 

Universal Pictures

“It was more so that we had so much more rehearsal, we had so much more work with the stunt team, and figuring out these awkward, wild, amazing creatures was a huge task, and also a really an incredible experience. 

“I think it was just very different this time around because it was scaled up. There was just so much more to do. But they’re incredible. I can’t wait for everyone to see them.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 hits theaters on December 5, 2025. Until then, read about all of the FnaF books and games, all the YouTubers in the first movie, and other films to watch in cinemas this month.