Five Nights At Freddy's: Who Is 'Steve' In The FNAF Movie Trailer?

Warning: This post contains potential spoilers for "Five Nights At Freddy's"

Freddy Fazbear and the other hellish animatronics are back to haunt your dreams, this time in movie form. Universal Pictures released the trailer for "Five Nights at Freddy's," including all of the human and animal-like characters at play. While fans aren't holding back on the trailer, players of the games are aware of the horrors coming with the big-screen adaptation, mainly centering on Matthew Lillard's "Steve."

While "Steve" may seem like your typical off-putting man searching for a security guard, that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the character's story. "Steve" is simply an alias hiding Lillard's character's true identity: William Afton. While that may not ring a bell to those who haven't played the games, Afton is the primary antagonist for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" series.

William Afton is one of Fazbear Entertainment's co-founders and the original animatronics' creator. Following the death of two of his children at the hands of his creations, Afton devolves into a serial killer, dressing up in an animatronic suit of his own to lure children to their deaths, stuffing them into the animatronics afterward. Afton is directly responsible for the ghosts that possess Freddy and the rest of the gang, and Lillard brings to life a villain that multiple movies can explore.

Although Matthew Lillard is already a horror icon for his performance in "Scream," bringing William Afton to life in "Five Nights at Freddy's" will be unlike any of his previous roles, assuming Universal doesn't wrap up all of the character's story in the first movie, which would be a mistake.

From the trailer, "Five Nights at Freddy's" seems to be setting up Lillard to play a larger role in a potential sequel. We don't get many shots of his character except when he's talking on the phone to Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson). While this could be Universal fooling us all with clever editing, the movie may just focus on Mike and his daughter trying to make it out of the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza alive, ending with the reveal that "Steve" is Afton.

A sequel could give audiences more of Afton's backstory or focus on Mike getting revenge on the man that hired him, or both. Thankfully, there's plenty of "Five Nights at Freddy's" lore for Universal and Blumhouse to explore, including The Purple Guy, Springtrap, and how he's connected to Mike in more ways than one. Earlier this year, Lillard appeared on "WeeklyMTG," revealing that his "Five Nights at Freddy's" contract with Universal was a three-picture deal, meaning the studio plans on bringing him back for two more movies, so it's safe to say Afton will return.