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• Five Nights at Freddy 2 has a secret weapon for making the animatronics real: Muppets creator Jim Henson's Creature Shop

The animatronics in Five Nights at Freddy’s are the result of a delicate mixture of nostalgia and horror — they are, after all, robot mascots of a fast food chain animated by the spirits of dead children. Unsurprisingly, it takes an experienced team to bring them to the big screen, which is why Blumhouse turned to some of the best: the designers and makers at the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, founded by the legendary Muppets creator.

“We really wanted to make the animatronics feel and move and act as practically as possible, versus the CG route” director Emma Tammi explained during the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, saying that as good as virtual characters can be, practical effects evokes a nostalgic response that fits in with FNAF feel more. “The team at Henson totally got that. They obviously have been doing that for decades, masterfully. On top of that, they really recognized that Freddy’s has this huge fanbase, and that the designs from the game were really important. They understood that the collaboration, bringing the designs from the game to real life, was a crucial component that we really needed to get right.”

Also involved in the early design process was franchise creator Scott Cawthon, Tammi revealed. Bringing each character to life onscreen — and ensuring that each had their own personality that was true to what fans would expect — was trickier than it might have been imagined, she said. “The sizes and dimensions of all of them are different, and the puppeteering is different, so figuring out each one not only in terms of the design, but in terms of the movement and their characteristics, was a challenge, especially when there was so many. It was a little army of animatronics in the Henson Workshop this time around.”

(How many are there in the second movie? Tammi teased that there were “more than three times” the number of the first feature.)

“The team, and Robert Bennett, who was our lead designer, just did an amazing job,” Tammi promised. “I can’t wait for you guys to see them.”

Audiences won’t have to wait that long: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will make it into theaters December 5.

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