After more than a month of speculation, the cameo was confirmed Tuesday with the release of the full-length trailer for “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” The horror film was adapted from the hit indie video game series of the same name. In the trailer, CoryxKenshin, whose real name is Cory DeVante Williams, appears at the end as a taxi driver.
“Where to?” he asks, before peering into his rear-view mirror and jumping in fright as he sees that his passengers are a mangled animatronic bear and a little girl. “Why do I always get the weirdos.”
“I’m not an actor, guys. … I just got to be a part of something really cool,” Cory said Tuesday afternoon in a video reacting to the trailer. He shared how he received a call from the game’s creator, Scott Cawthon, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, asking him to make an appearance in the film. Cory added that he was “nervous the whole time” when filming on set. The YouTube star, whose channel commands a following of more than 16 million subscribers, credited the game with “changing the trajectory of my entire life.”
“This is so cool though, because y’all gotta understand, I’m just a nerd, bro, I’m just a gamer — I see myself as the most regular dude of all time,” Cory continued with a big grin, chuckling to himself. “So just seeing this, I’m so happy, I’m so happy.”
Even without Cory’s cameo, the film is highly anticipated among fans of the video game series and has generated buzz over the last six months amid various leaks and sneak peaks. Since 2014, when Cawthon released the indie game on Steam, the series has spawned more than a dozen sequels and spinoffs. The franchise owes much of its initial success to YouTube gamers and streamers, such as Cory, who popularized the game, which had built a reputation for its wild jump scares.
Cory is known for videos showing himself playing through horror video games, offering humorous commentary throughout. His narrated game-play videos of the original “Five Nights” game — which comes with the appropriate warning “Don’t watch at night” — remain among his most-watched videos.
Within a year of the release of “Five Nights,” videos about the game had landed among YouTube’s list of the 10 most popular franchises on the site, based on viewing time, according to Game Informer. It had largely been eclipsed only by franchises from major video game developers, such as “Call of Duty,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “League of Legends,” “FIFA,” “The Sims,” as well as “Minecraft.”
When what appeared to be an unfinished cut of the film’s teaser leaked in early May, fans took notice of Cory’s casting. The game’s creator, Cawthon, confirmed the leak on a “Five Nights” sub-Reddit and said he was “disheartened.” Even so, fans ran with the leak, excited about the possibility of Cory breaking the fourth wall and entering a fictional universe he helped popularize.
And with the drop of the official full-length trailer on Tuesday showing Cory’s minor role, fans rejoiced.
“Okay this is revolutionary,” wrote @iamZaskaii on Twitter. “CORYXKENSHIN IS HERE. THE LIMITS OF A BEDROOM CREATOR GETS BROKEN ONCE AGAIN.”
“Not me SCREAAAMING at the end of the #FiveNightsAtFreddys trailer because @CoryxKenshin’s in it!” exclaimed @theMistyDawn.
“@CoryxKenshin is in the FNAF lore, let’s get it!!!” wrote @WAT3RPLZ. “SAMURI STAND UP!!!!” he added, referring to a rallying cry for his fan base.
The upcoming movie seems to stick with the plot and lore of the original game. A security guard is hired to look after a run-down children’s pizza and arcade joint, Freddy Frazbear’s Pizza, known for its fuzzy animatronic animal-like characters (think Chuck E. Cheese). The business fell into disrepair in the 1980s after a number of children went missing inside. At midnight, the restaurant’s animatronics come alive, hunting down customers, employees or anyone who crosses their path.
“Police searched top to bottom — they never found them,” said a law enforcement officer, played by Elizabeth Lail, in the trailer.
Josh Hutcherson plays newly hired security guard Mike Schmidt. “So there are ghost children, possessing giant robots?” he asks, referring to the haunted animatronics. “Thanks for the heads up.”
Throughout the trailer, Hutcherson’s character battles the animatronics, protecting a young girl. The trailer only shows brief flashes of the fuzzy killers, known in the game as Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie and Chica.
The film, set for release in theaters and on Peacock on Oct. 27, was nearly a decade in the making. Rights to the movie were acquired by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2015. Several years later, the movie rights changed hands to Blumhouse Productions, the film and TV production company behind recent popular horror and thriller films “Paranormal Activity,” “Insidious,” “The Purge,” “Split,” “Get Out,’ “Halloween” and “Us.”