It all starts with Fredbear’s Family Diner, a small but successful restaurant founded by William Afton and Henry Emily in the early 1980s. It was simpler than the later Freddy’s locations — just two main characters, Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, both designed with dangerous spring-lock mechanisms that allowed them to function as either animatronics or wearable suits. The place was popular with kids, and for a while it seemed harmless. But this is where the foundation of the entire franchise — and all its tragedies — began. Behind the scenes, William was already experimenting with robotics far beyond simple entertainment. After early success, the diner expanded into a larger franchise: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. With the expansion came more animatronics, more locations, and eventually, more opportunities for things to go very wrong. In 1983, tragedy struck inside Fredbear’s Family Diner. William’s youngest son, often called the Crying Child, was terrified of the animatronics, especially Fredbear. His older brother Michael constantly bullied him, escalating the fear. On his birthday, Michael and his friends carried him up to the stage and shoved his head into Fredbear’s mouth as a prank. The spring-lock mechanisms failed while the suit was in animatronic mode, and Fredbear’s jaw clamped down on the child’s head. The Bite of ’83 killed him and shattered the Afton family. The diner shut down, and the cheerful image of the franchise was permanently stained. Soon after, William’s daughter Elizabeth was killed by one of his own creations. William had secretly built a new line of animatronics called the Funtime models, designed not just for performance but for capturing children when adults weren’t watching. Circus Baby, the centerpiece, was programmed to lure kids in with ice cream and attention. When Elizabeth approached her alone, Baby’s mechanisms activated and killed her. Her soul went on to possess Circus Baby. William immediately closed Circus Baby’s Pizza World and hid the animatronics in an underground rental facility, continuing his experiments in secret. Around this time, William committed the crime that defined the franchise: he lured five children into a back room at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza while wearing the Spring Bonnie suit and murdered them. Their bodies were hidden inside the animatronic suits of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and a fifth spirit associated with Golden Freddy. The Puppet — possessed by Henry’s daughter Charlotte, who had been killed earlier outside the restaurant — helped “give life” to the victims, allowing their souls to inhabit the machines. From that point on, the animatronics were no longer just robots. They were haunted, confused, and vengeful. In 1987, a new and “improved” Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza opened with Toy animatronics equipped with facial recognition systems meant to prevent further crimes. The older, withered animatronics were kept for parts. But the spirits were still active, and strange behavior continued. One of the animatronics bit a daytime employee in what became known as the Bite of ’87, causing serious injury. The location shut down not long after. The company tried to rebrand and downplay everything, but the pattern of closures and incidents followed them. At some point after the restaurants began failing, William returned to one of the abandoned Freddy’s locations. The spirits of the children cornered him in the safe room. In desperation, he climbed into the old Spring Bonnie suit for protection. Moisture triggered the unstable spring locks, and the mechanisms snapped violently into his body. He was crushed and impaled inside the suit, left to rot behind a sealed wall. But death didn’t end him. Through remnant — the supernatural substance tied to haunted metal — William’s consciousness remained trapped inside the suit, transforming him into Springtrap. Meanwhile, Michael Afton, now older and burdened with guilt over his brother’s death, began trying to undo his father’s damage. He worked at various Freddy’s locations under false names, attempting to free the spirits. Eventually he went to the underground Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental facility to confront what happened to Elizabeth. There, the Funtime animatronics merged into a single entity called Ennard and used Michael’s body as a disguise to escape to the surface. After his body decayed and Ennard abandoned him, Michael should have died — but remnant kept him alive. He continued walking, decayed but determined to fix what his father had started.
Decades later, the franchise tried to profit off its dark history by creating a horror attraction called Fazbear’s Fright. Workers uncovered the sealed room and found Springtrap still inside. He became the main attraction. During the events of that week, the building caught fire. The attraction burned to the ground, but Springtrap survived yet again, damaged but not destroyed. Henry Emily eventually returned with a final plan. He created one last Freddy’s location as a trap, intentionally gathering the remaining haunted animatronics: Scrap Baby (Elizabeth), Molten Freddy (the remnants of Ennard), Lefty containing the Puppet (Charlotte), and Springtrap. Michael worked there knowingly, helping lure them in. At the end, Henry revealed the truth and set the building on fire, intending to free all the trapped souls and end William once and for all. Michael chose to stay inside. The fire was meant to be the true ending — a release for the children and a final punishment for Afton. However, Fazbear Entertainment refused to let the past die. They later developed a virtual reality game to make light of the old rumors and clear their name. During development, circuit boards from old animatronics were scanned, unintentionally recreating a digital version of William’s consciousness known as Glitchtrap. This entity began manipulating a beta tester named Vanessa, slowly taking control of her mind and continuing Afton’s legacy in a new form. In the era of the Mega Pizzaplex, Vanessa — now influenced as Vanny — carries out Glitchtrap’s will while hiding beneath the surface of a glossy, high-tech mall built over the ruins of the past. A boy named Gregory uncovers the truth during one chaotic night. Beneath the building, the burned remains of the old pizzeria still sit, along with something that resembles William trying to return again. Even after fires, closures, and decades of tragedy, the cycle of Afton’s obsession with survival continues — proving that in this franchise, nothing stays buried for long.
