We get it. FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S is a major hit with the kiddos and the little ones of the horror genre.
It’s basically Chuck E. Cheese on steroids, heavily caffeinated and carrying a whole lot of murderous animatronic baggage. But hey, the kids love it. They love it so much, in fact, that Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is about to become a real place you can actually visit.
According to Variety, the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise and New Jersey entertainment and retail destination American Dream are teaming up to open a real life Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 2027.
Yes, really.
Based on the fictional restaurant featured throughout the Five Nights at Freddy’s universe, the new location is being designed as an immersive dining experience in collaboration with ScottGames, the company behind the franchise.
And this isn’t simply going to be a restaurant with a Freddy Fazbear sign slapped on the wall. Oh no, they have much more planned.
HOW WILL IT LOOK?
The plan is for Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza to operate as a quick service dining experience featuring two animatronic stage shows. The Main Stage will feature Freddy and the Fazbear Band, while Pirate Cove will be home to Foxy the Pirate.
Guests will be able to grab some food, play arcade games, watch the animatronic performances and even participate in multiplayer survival horror experiences.
Because apparently taking the kids out for pizza and arcade games wasn’t stressful enough.
“The only way this experience succeeds is if it’s created by a team that knows Five Nights at Freddy’s inside and out,” said Atreyu Alcantar, creative manager of licensing and location based entertainment at American Dream and creative lead for the attraction.
“The animatronic show has to be authentic. The food has to be high quality. And above all else, we’re not building a set that looks like Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. We’re building Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”
We respect this approach as it gives everyone what they want in one tight package.
The entire appeal of Five Nights at Freddy’s comes from the unsettling idea that the seemingly harmless family entertainment restaurant is anything but harmless. You have brightly colored characters, arcade games, pizza and animatronic performers wrapped around a story involving homicidal machines that would very much like to ruin your evening.
So naturally, someone decided the best way to celebrate the franchise was to build the damn place.
The attraction is being designed to immerse longtime fans in the world they have spent years exploring through the games, books, graphic novels and films, while also introducing the franchise to a new generation of fans.
For anyone somehow unfamiliar with the phenomenon, Five Nights at Freddy’s began as a video game series created by Scott Cawthon. The games typically center around characters attempting to survive attacks from homicidal animatronic characters, many of whom are connected to the fictional Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant chain.
The franchise has since exploded well beyond gaming, expanding into novels, graphic novels and feature films.
Now it’s getting the one thing every horror franchise eventually seems to want: a place where fans can actually eat.
Just remember to check on the animatronics before you leave.
You know, for safety.