William Afton (Film) (2024)

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William Afton (also known as The Yellow Rabbit) is a serial killer and the main antagonist of the Five Nights at Freddy's film. He was the owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place before the closure of his pizzeria following his killing spree in which he took the lives of 5 children attending a birthday party, who all later haunt the building. Since then, he has taken up the alias of Steve Raglan, helping the less fortunate to find jobs, when in reality he uses it to select certain victims, such as Mike Schmidt.

He is played by Matthew Lillard.

Physical Appearance[]

Human[]

As Steve Raglan, William is a tall, fairly good looking middle aged man with light skin and taupe hair, blue eyes, and a Van Dyke beard. He wears golden vintage aviator eyeglasses, a yellow long-sleeved dress shirt with blue stripes, and either a purple tie with thin blue stripes or a blue tie with white dots.

The Yellow Rabbit[]

While suited, William can be seen in a yellow bunny mascot suit with a lot of withering on the left side of the suit. The right side of the suit is damaged and decomposed, the jaw fixed slightly open allowing you to see Afton's goatee inside. Half of the right ear is snapped off, and wires and other rusted metal rip out of it. The suit also makes the already very tall Afton bigger and bulkier, due to the inner mechanical springlocks needing space to work. The pupils on the eyes of the suit are black, with white glowing rings and dots inside the rings. The suit also dons a signature purple bowtie. By the end of the film, the suit is torn on the left side of the torso, revealing its springlocks underneath the suits cover. When Afton is crushed in the end of the film, the chest of the suit is partially sunk in.

Personality[]

William Afton is a very clever and calculated individual. Every outcome of every move he makes is thoroughly thought out and determined. He is careful with his murderous rampages and recalls details about them well, although he showed some slight anxiety as he quickly recognizes Mike Schmidt as the brother of one of his earliest victims, Garrett Schmidt, from their shared last name alone. He quickly composes himself, however, and glimpses of his theatrical, humorous side begin to show.

Like in the novel trilogy, William uses a fake identity and personality to blend into society and draw no attention to himself. "Steve Raglan" is very far removed from William's true self. Steve initially appears to be an extremely normal, unremarkable person— somewhat boring, somewhat witty— and seems rather dismissive and unlikeable, while occasionally joking around with Mike and offering him coffee (despite Mike not adhering to his humor or offers.). Yet when the subject of Freddy's is concerned, William lets the "Steve" mask slip and subtly becomes extremely whimsical and charismatic, as well as quite cunning and plotting, changing his tone from being abrasive, dismissing and bored, to being congenial, lively and pretending to be helpful in order to convince Mike to take the security job at Freddy's. He later reveals to Mike that he knew all along who the latter was and that Vanessa was supposed to keep an eye on Mike and kill him if Mike figured this out, to prevent Mike from reporting the serial killer to the police.

William smiles in an almost dreamy way when on the phone with Mike, joking about with the unsuspecting Mike that the owner of Freddy's (himself) is "a sentimental guy, I guess", cares about the restaurant and does not want it to be torn down, showing that William has a a casual confidence in his safety under the Steve Raglan disguise, as well as a sentimental side pertaining to his work. This is further supported by an employee training video that Mike watches, in which the virtual trainer says that the owner speaks highly of his creations. In this universe, Henry Emily does not seem to exist, as he is never mentioned and William tells the animatronics that he created them; although he could have been referring to the fact he made his victims possess the animatronics.

In spite of his friendly, unserious and humorous manner of speaking, he is in truth a sad*stic killer and manipulator. He proved quite skilled as the latter as well. William shows no qualms with using others for his own ends, not his victims nor even his own daughter Vanessa. As in the books, William is shown to use his own daughter for his own selfish gain, without any regard to her safety or emotional well being. William is also shown to be manipulative towards his daughter, using mind games to control her, and as Mike points out when he tells Vanessa, "He (William) messed you up." The manipulation is shown by how his daughter still has loyalty and affection towards her father, despite his obvious disregard for her. Even though she knew all that he had done and was deeply horrified by it, Vanessa didn't dare to defy him for years and even assisted him. Likewise, when Mike asked for her help she outright refused, noting she wouldn't be of help against him.

Vanessa warns Mike that William is cruel. When she is no longer useful to him, after her betrayal towards him by shooting him with her gun, he stabs her with his knife, further supporting this statement. As the Yellow Rabbit, William acts less like a businessman, and more like how Springtrap behaved in the games. He becomes very violent and ruthless, using his practice with wearing the Yellow Rabbit suit in order to move quickly despite its weight, and using the momentum along with the weight of the suit to deliver powerful blows with his punches and kicks. He prefers to brutalise Mike into submission, waiting until his victim is unconscious, before he pulls out his knife to inflict the killing wound. Upon confronting Mike while in his rabbit suit he laughs at his futile attempt to incapacitate him with a taser and joyfully laughs as he overpowers and beats him up. He also belittles the animatronics as he at times verbally abuses them when frustrated and doesn't cower even when they might be a menace for him.

When his plot to kill Abby Schmidt is discovered and foiled by both Mike and Vanessa, he flies into a rage and frantically attacks them. He shows more of his ability to be emotionally manipulative by ordering Vanessa to help clean the mess that she “caused” showing that he blamed her as the source of the situation despite his own actions being the obvious cause. While he shows some momentary remorse for stabbing Vanessa, it is fleeting, as his desire to kill the rest of the Schmidt family eclipses any potential remorse.

One of the characteristics Afton demonstrates the most is his great arrogance. In the training video, the script dictates that the speaker call the owner a "genius" and "clever" which shows that William is arrogant, as he would have approved the script for the training video. He was so sure of his control over Vanessa and that she was completely submissive that, after she appeared to help Mike, William mocked her threat to shoot him, believing and openly saying she didn't have the courage to do it. Upon being confronted by the animatronics after the truth is revealed, he does not back away, but instead opts for trying to talk them down by insulting them and dehumanizing them, only to eventually meet his end from his own suit. Even in the face of certain death William doesn't show much fear but rather confidence in him persevering through it, remarking that he "always comes back". William shows that he is determined and tenacious, by attempting to withstand being spring-locked without screaming, despite being in immense suffering, and then chooses to arrogantly assure Mike that he will return.

History[]

William Afton is a serial killer who primarily abducts and kills children. Early in his murderous career, one of his victims included Garrett Schmidt, the younger brother of Mike Schmidt, who would be haunted by the memory for several years. With all that Mike could remember was that Garrett’s kidnapper was driving a black sedan with no license plate and wearing a black hoodie. At some point during the late 1970’s- early 1980s, he would establish Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, and use it as a front to murder five more children while wearing a yellow rabbit suit, stuffing their corpses inside the restaurant's animatronic mascots to avoid further detection. His daughter, Vanessa, would become traumatized by her father's actions, and eventually the incident caused Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place to be shut down. The current movie does not reveal his motives for doing so, and will likely explain this in potential sequels.

In the movie, William is not the one who raised Mike, as Mike is seen with a different father at the same time that William abducts his brother. Instead of Elizabeth, William's daughter is Vanessa.

William would had to have known the name of the boy that he abducted in order to recognise that Mike was his brother just by seeing the surname. How William learned the name and whether or not he had any prior interaction with the family is not expanded upon in the film.

Going into hiding, Afton took up the alias of Steve Raglan, a career guide based in Minnesota. Curiously, Afton is able to exert a degree of control over the lost souls of his five victims, making them blind to the truth of their deaths and manipulating their vengeance against others. As Raglan, he first meets Mike upon the latter searching for a new job. Clearly, Afton has little to no general knowhow on what he is meant to be doing, having participation awards hung on the wall, a dirty desk and spinning around in his chair. He lowly grunts at Schmidt, before essentially mocking his portfolio, stating how he's almost impressed with how Mike is unable to keep a job afloat. Mike doesn't fully respond to Raglan, instead making the occasional nod to keep him somewhat entertained. Mike eventually gets sick of Raglan's yapping and goes to leave, but he instructs Mike to sit down and offers him a place at Freddy's. Mike takes Raglan's card and leaves, causing the seemingly distressed Raglan to sit back down.

William Afton reappears during the climax of the film after Mike survives four nights with the aid of Vanessa and his sister Abby. On the fifth night, Mike and Vanessa manage to rescue Abby from the animatronics by disabling them with taser equipment, but they are prevented from leaving by Afton, who has donned the Yellow Rabbit suit. Mike attempts to tase him, but the weapon has no effect as he brutally beats Mike and orders the animatronics to rise again to do his bidding. Vanessa holds Afton at gunpoint, at which he takes off the suit's head to reveal himself as having posed as Raglan.

He easily tanks a gunshot from Vanessa and staves her off, ranting about how she and Mike couldn't have just stayed quiet about the horrors within the restaurant, but while he is distracted, Mike recognizes that Afton is somehow in control of the animatronics, and - knowing Abby also made friends with them - implores Abby to make a drawing that will reveal the truth to them and turn them against Afton. Though he moves to stop her, Afton's arm is grabbed by Vanessa, who tearfully declares that she won't let her father make sport of another child. Afton stabs her in return, slightly shocked at his own actions before turning back to Abby. However, he is too late - Abby rips off the drawing on the wall depicting the yellow rabbit being friends with the five children and replaces it with her drawing of the yellow rabbit killing them with a bloodstained knife.

The movie follows the same lore as the book "The Silver Eyes" in that the children possessing the animatronics are unaware that William, while wearing the Yellow Rabbit, murdered them. This is shown by how they obey and help him until Abby shows them with a drawing the truth about their demise, causing them to turn on William. The truth finally revealed, Afton's control over the animatronics shatters completely, and Freddy and the others turn towards the madman with clear expressions of rage. Afton moves to kill Abby in retaliation, but his path is blocked by Foxy. Afton screams at Foxy to move, but the restaurant spotlights activate and blind him, dramatically exposing him as the true killer of the children. Realising this, Foxy walks straight past Abby and the animatronics form a mob around William. As this happens, Mike takes the chance to help Vanessa, who is slipping in and out of consciousness, up and Abby assists her in doing so.

Terrified, William belittles and attempts to scare away the animatronics but to no avail. They enclose on him, likely to rip him apart, until Chica throws The Cupcake at him. It tears the fabric off the suit, leaving Afton perfectly fine, but the force of the tear causes the springlock mechanisms hidden inside the suit to fail, snapping them back into place, impaling him in the process. Afton is fatally pierced multiple times in the torso before collapsing to his knees in agony. Realising the extent of his injuries, the madman accepts his fate; re-donning his mask and declaring his iron will to return. After this, William succumbs to his injuries and collapses, before he is dragged into a backroom by the animatronics as the building collapses around them.

Speculation[]

"I was the first! I have seen everything!" This section archives a lot of theories and speculation, which usually occurs from pre-release media, or just things that are still unknown, so please keep that in mind while reading. The page will continue to be updated with the most accurate information as more solid evidence is supplied.

• He will most likely return as Springtrap in future installments given his demise from springlock malfunction like in the games, along with Matthew Lillard stating in an interview on the WeeklyMTG podcast that he signed a three movie deal with Blumhouse and Universal.^[1]

Trivia[]

• Lillard also portrayed another serial killer prior to the Five Nights at Freddy's film, that being Stu Macher, one of the killers from the original Scream.
  • The final trailer features William wiping his blade with his hand, which is a reference to the same move used by Stu Macher as Ghostface in Scream. According to Matthew Lillard, Emma Tamini was the one who came up with the idea and asked him to do it.
  • The gun that Vanessa shoots Afton with is a Beretta 92 FS, which is the exact same gun that Stu grabbed from Dewey to hold Sidney Prescott hostage.
• Lillard is also known for portraying Shaggy Rogers in the live action Scooby-Doo films, as well as several animated Scooby-Doo media.
  • This has led to multiple memes showing Shaggy colored purple (from the minigames' sprites) taking the place of William from the games, sometimes with Scooby taking the place of Golden Freddy.
• William's use of a false identity, in this case Steve Raglan, is similar to his novel's counterpart, who went by the name Dave Miller.
• The car Afton drives when kidnapping Garrett is a 1979 Ford Fairmont.
• Director of the film Emma Tammi, described choosing Lillard for the character of William as "The number-one role that we really had the fan-base in mind for."
• William's demise at the end of the movie is similar to his novel's counterpart in The Silver Eyes.
  • His final line, "I always come back!", references the same line his game counterpart uses in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
    • His final line also references his return as Springtrap in future installments.
• Before October 27th, 2023, Lillard's IMDb page for the film only listed him appearing as Steve Raglan.
  • Upon the film's release, it was updated to show William Afton as well.
• William's springlock suit is never referred to as Spring Bonnie in the movie, but rather "the Yellow Rabbit".
  • This could be a possible reference to Golden Freddy's codename in FNaF 1, "Yellowbear"
• Serial killers and infamous criminals such as Edmund Kemper, Robert Berchtold, and Jeffrey Dahmer were inspirations for Afton.^[2]
• During the opening 8-bit sequence, Matthew Lillard's and Elizabeth Lail's names are both purple foreshadowing that William and Vanessa are related.
• Upon Mike's very first arrival at the pizzeria, William tells him through the phone that he will "catch him on the flip side." This may be a reference to Phone Guy who ends the Night 3 call with a somewhat similar goodbye.
• Matthew Lillard reported that he could not see through the Yellow Rabbit's head.
• One of the makeup artists, Ashley Levy, posted on Instagram about the inspiration for William Afton and Steve Raglan.^[3]
  • For "Steve Raglan," they wanted to evoke the approachability and softness of the character "Principal Brown" from the film Booksmart, the authority of the psychiatrist from the TV series Euphoria, and also forewarn the potential sociopathic tendencies via the character D-Fens from the film Falling Down.
  • For William Afton's big reveal, they wanted to keep the simplicity as a slight nod to Matthew Lillard's role in Scream.
• Steve Raglan is supposed to be an anagram of "Everlasting", possibly teasing his true identity as William.
  • However, it instead spells "Everlastang", which is probably a joke from Scott.

Gallery[]

William Afton[]

The Yellow Rabbit[]

Deleted Scenes[]

Behind the Scenes[]

References[]