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Here’s a little industry secret for ya: when studios are filming on major projects, they’ll often give the project a code name so as not to draw unwanted attention to the filming location. Your Marvel Studios movies, your Missions: Impossible, your Jameses Bondses, all of them have almost certainly filmed under cover of a different name at one point in franchise history. Such was certainly the case for the much-anticipated Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, but as we were surprised to learn recently, the filming codename had nothing to do with the titular character. 

No - for some reason, production studio Blumhouse decided to reference fan favorite side-villain Chica instead.

The story actually comes from Chica herself - that is, Jess Weiss, who put on the animatronic yellow bird suit (and bib) to play the video game baddy in the Five Night’s at Freddy’s movie. Weiss was recently at GalaxyCon New Orleans 2025, where she took the stage for a FNAF panel. About 10 minutes into the discussion, Weiss was asked by the moderator about the level of secrecy that the film required.

“Every movie has what's called a working title,” Weiss explains, “Our working title was Bad Cupcake. So if you want to say that it's the code name, you can, but that's how all movies are until they [come out].”

In case you’re not aware, “Bad Cupcake” is a reference to the evil, animatronic cupcake that the character of Chica carries around with her throughout both the Blumhouse movie and the games that inspired it. There’s one in particular that the Bizarro Big Bird carries with her at all times, referred to in the games as Mr. Cupcake. And just like his master, Mr. Cupcake is also out to terrorize anyone that should enter Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria (or its offshoots), making it just one more threat that the poor main characters of the games must face.

Albeit a much smaller, more delicious-looking one.

Five Nights at Freddy's is currently available to stream on Starz. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 comes to theaters December 5.

The Five Nights at Freddy's phenomenon is lasting longer than five nights. Get up to speed, with how to play all the FNAF games in order, why Five Nights at Freddy's is the ideal starter kit for a kid wanting to get into horror, details on the characters and lore, getting to know the FNAF movie animatronics, how the movie fits in the canon of the games, and how Chuck E. Cheese is responding.

Can't get enough? We have recommendations for five movies to watch after Five Nights at Freddy's.