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NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of William Afton from the 2023 movie. The mainstream version can be found here.
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William Afton says:"I ALWAYS come back" William says This article William Afton (2023) is a Spoiler and may contain information which may spoil something for you.If your new to the series please read at your own risk thank you.Antagonists Wiki is NOT responsible for any spoilers you see again you have been warned. |
| “ | You couldn't just leave it alone, could you!? Lucky me! This is perfect. First, I killed your brother. Now, I kill you. Symmetry, my friend! Wake up, children! I have something for you to play with! This is gonna be so much fun. The little ones tell me you have a sister. She will love it here! You, however, are finished! Farewell, Michael Schmidt. | „ |
| ~ William Afton taunting Mike Schmidt |
| “ | Look at you... Look at the NASTY things that you have become! Look at how small you are, how WORTHLESS you are! You are wretched, rotten little beasts! I MADE YOU! | „ |
| ~ Afton's breakdown as the animatronics turn on him. |
| “ | I always come back! | „ |
| ~ Afton's final words as he is slowly impaled by the Yellow Rabbit's springlocks. |
William Afton, also known as Steve Raglan or the Yellow Rabbit, is the main antagonist of the 2023 supernatural horror film Five Nights at Freddy's, the film adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name.
He is a Fazbear Entertainment associate as well as a notorious serial killer who murdered several innocent children at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place during the 1980's and hid their bodies inside the establishment's four animatronic characters, which led them to becoming possessed and vicious monstrous robots.
Around two decades later, he would take up the identity of career counselor Steve Raglan, where he would hire people for the night shift at Freddy's so the animatronics could kill them, having control of the possessed animatronics through a drawing. This includes Mike Schmidt, an unemployed troubled young man who lost his younger brother to Afton several years ago. This makes Afton order his daughter, Vanessa Shelly, to watch over Mike and kill him if he gets too close to discovering the truth. Thus, he is Mike's archenemy.
He was portrayed by Matthew Lillard, who also played Stu Macher in Scream, Chet Sulloway in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, David Roy Turner in Criminal Minds and the Lizard King in Axel: The Biggest Little Hero. Although he's mostly known for playing Shaggy Rogers.
Appearance[]
Human[]
William Afton is a middle-aged man with a light skin complexion, grayish blue eyes, and a gray/dark brown combed side-parted hair, mustache and goatee. When he is first introduced in the film, he wears a pair of golden vintage aviator glasses, which he takes off later in the film, as well as what is most likely a Madras-patterned cream shirt with rolled up sleeves, a wine-like purple with dark blue oblique stripes and gray pants with a black belt fastened to his waist. That said, later in the film he's briefly seen wearing a grayish-yellow long-sleeved shirt with a blue-striped-vertical pattern with a dark blue tie with small light blue polka dots. During the film's climax, William is shown wearing a dark-greyish yellow jumpsuit while wearing the Yellow Rabbit suit; however this jumpsuit isn't completely visible due to the springlock suit covering it for the most part.
The Yellow Rabbit[]
While suited, Afton is shown wearing a withered and decomposed golden rabbit mascot suit with heavily damages, gaping holes exposing wires on its right side, a big purple bowtie and two black buttons on its chest. It also lacks a huge part of its right ear. Afton's beard is slightly visible due to the costume's jaw being slightly open. The springlock mechanisms of the costume make Afton seem bulkier and taller. When Afton wears the head of the Yellow Rabbit suit the eyes glow a ghostly grey. At the end of the film, a large chunk on the stomach is ripped off, revealing the suit's springlock mechanism underneath and it becomes likely blood soaked due to the springlocks failing on Afton.
Personality[]
| “ | The man who took them, he was a... he was a very bad man. A very cruel man. Also a very clever man. | „ |
| ~ Vanessa describing William Afton, her father. |
William Afton is accurately described as a malevolent though intelligent man. He makes it clear that he is a sociopath, not caring about others and displaying clear enjoyment at tormenting people like Mike. He seems to be very egotistical and gladly takes time to admire his own achievements. Despite this, Afton is also shown to be very intelligent, knowing plenty about the animatronics, being a skilled manipulator, and being able to disguise himself for decades. He seems to enjoy his past actions as he brainwashes his victims and hires the sibling of one of the children he murdered to work as a security guard for him just for his own enjoyment, given the implications he wouldn't have hired him otherwise.
As Steve Raglan, William dons a polite and bumbling façade who tries to tell jokes to lighten the mood, while also being rather smug and insulting to Mike when learning about his past jobs. However, when he realizes Mike is Garrett's brother, his behavior changes and he becomes more sophisticated.
Despite his cruelty, there is a moment after stabbing Vanessa where Afton stopped what he was doing and looked at her with a face of shock, implying that, despite his attempt at her life, he does hold a small but genuine amount of care for his daughter. However, this is likely Afton just being disappointed that he could no longer control Vanessa.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Genius-level intellect: According to Vanessa's words, Afton is a very cunning, plotting, and calculating criminal mastermind with high levels of intelligence. This is evident numerous times throughout the film, as he keeps committing and perpetuating his crimes under a new identity from afar without being caught by the authorities, remaining free for years, as well as plotting his murders before enacting them, going with the help of his manipulated daughter Vanessa to cover up the disappearances of the previous security guards.
- Murder methodology: William is strategic and creative when it comes to luring and murdering his victims, as he equips the Yellow Rabbit suit to deceive them by giving them gifts such as balloons in order to gain the children's trust.
- Manipulation: Afton is an expert at manipulating people, as he was able to trick and convince his victims into following him, presumably giving them false promises in the process, as well as being manipulative towards his daughter Vanessa for years and presumably threatened her into assisting him.
- Mechanical engineering: Afton is a skilled engineer, as he was able to construct deadly murder devices which he uses to kill a previous nightguard with a custom made contraption that sawed his face. He also was able to construct and house the dead children into animatronics and manipulated them into bloodthirsty killers without their remains showing or being recognized until Abby made them turn on him.
- Enhanced strength: While wearing the Yellow Rabbit suit, William gains an incredible amount of strength due to the hard material and bulkiness of the suit, which allowed him to easily overpower Mike, pushing him and knocking him unconscious very easily after kicking his head.
- Enhanced durability: While suited, Afton is almost entirely unaffected by any sort of devices that could easily harm any human; as shown when Mike tried to electrocute him via using a taser only for William to easily snatch the device from his hands. as well as when Vanessa shot him in the abdomen, William remained unaffected by the firearm due to the springlock suit protecting his body from the bullet. He also was capable of resisting the pain caused by the spring lock malfunction, choosing to die defiant.
Weaknesses[]
- Arrogance: Despite being a genius killer, he is also overconfident and stubborn, as he goes to insult all of his victims in the animatronics when they turn on him, which causes one of them to trigger the springlock mechanisms in his suit.
Quotes[]
Said by William[]
| “ | Mm. What is your deal, Mike? What are you, some kind of.. "head case"? | „ |
| ~ William's first lines of the film, mocking Mike Schmidt for attacking a father that he mistook to be a kidnapper. |
| “ | It's like you're not even trying here, yet you sit before me asking for help. I am just trying to figure out who you are, Mr. Michael Sch- .. Coffee? | „ |
| ~ Afton realizing the identity and related past of him and Mike Schmidt. |
| “ | William Afton: It's a security gig. Full disclosure: it's not great. High turn over, that's what we call it in the business, but you get to be your own boss. Sort of. And you only have to worry about one thing! Keeping people out and- and- You know- and keep the place tidy. Mike Schmidt: That's two things. William Afton: …You want the job or not? |
„ |
| ~ Afton offering the night guard job to Mike. |
| “ | This place was huge in the 80’s with the kids. It's been shut down for years. The only reason they haven't given it the old, 'wrecking ball' treatment, is the owner is a bit of uh, well he's kind of a sentimental guy, I guess. | „ |
| ~ Afton about Freddy's. |
| “ | Little old for tamper tantrums, aren't we, Vanessa? | „ |
| ~ Afton mocking Vanessa. |
| “ | Now, put that thing away, and help me clean up the mess that 'you
created! |
„ |
| ~ William to Vanessa when she tries to stop his attacks. |
| “ | You had one job! One! Keep him in the dark and kill him if he got too close! | „ |
| ~ William scolding Vanessa for failing to keep Mike unaware of his identity. |
| “ | Look at you... Look at the NASTY things that you have become! Look at how small you are, how WORTHLESS you are! You are wretched, rotten little beasts! I MADE YOU! | „ |
| ~ William's villainous breakdown as the animatronics turn on him. |
Referring to William[]
| “ | What is this? Who are you? That car. Did you see that car? You see what happened? Did you see who took my brother? | „ |
| ~ Mike asking the ghosts of the Missing Children if they know who was the man who took Garrett. |
| “ | Please don't-don't… don't run, okay? I-I just want to know what you saw. Please, I'm begging you. Help me. Who took Garrett?! | „ |
| ~ Mike asking once again the ghosts of the Missing Children who kidnapped Garrett. |
| “ | So I used to have a brother, his name was Garrett, and when I was… about 12, he was, uh, he was taken, and I was there when it happened. They never found the guy who did it, and they never found my brother. | „ |
| ~ Mike telling Vanessa the kidnapping of his brother years ago. |
What makes him near pure evil?[]
- For unknown reasons, he kidnapped a boy named Garrett Schmidt and took him away from his parents and older brother Michael at a campsite, eventually murdering him, traumatizing Mike for years and causing the Schmidt family to slowly fall apart.
- It is also shown that William caused Mike to be afflicted with PTSD of losing Garrett throughout his entire life after taking his brother away from him, thus is the reason Mike is having nightmares about the day he lost his brother in the first place as a way to figure out who his kidnapper was to avenge Garrett's death.
- During the 1980s, he murdered five children at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place and stuffed their corpses in the animatronic suits, causing their spirits to possess the pizzeria's animatronic mascots Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Golden Freddy.
- He exploited the children's amnesia by using a kid's drawing of himself in the Yellow Rabbit suit holding the hands of the children he had killed to manipulate the possessed animatronics into thinking that he is their friend, turning them into his minions as a result.
- However, it is easy to feel bad for the animatronics as, despite being homicidal robots, they are revealed to be sympathetic and tragic since they didn't want to hurt anyone. This is demonstrated when they were shown to be friendly and playful towards Abby on the third and fourth nights, despite being influenced by William into committing the murders for him.
- Throughout the film, he is partly responsible for the murders the animatronics have committed, including Jeff and his gang and Jane Schmidt (although she deserved it because of how horrible and greedy she really was since she attempted to have Mike lose his job by having her goons lay waste to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza in order to gain custody of Abby) and even their attempted murder of Abby by trying to have her stuffed into an Ella springlock suit. Among the victims to be killed by the animatronics was Abby's babysitter Max, though it is easy to feel bad for her due to the fact that she was a caring person towards Mike and Abby, but was forced to work for Jane and follow orders from her, making her death somewhat undeserving.
- However, it's revealed that William doesn't care about the animatronics as he was just using them as tools to commit murder. While the animatronics are hostile like how they are shown to be dangerous towards Mike and did commit murder under orders from William, this is because they are under his influence since he was forcing them to murder people by slavery, making this his actions and not theirs.
- He likely constructed the razor-bladed Freddy Fazbear mask device in the Parts and Service room to kill night guards or other people who enter the pizzeria. This is shown when a security guard named Bob (whom William had possibly hired to work at the pizzeria so that he would get killed by the animatronics) got sawed by the device at the beginning of the film after attempting to find a way to escape from the pizzeria while trying to evade the animatronics, making William indirectly responsible for his death. The same thing almost nearly happened to Mike until he managed to escape before he could suffer the same fate that Bob had earlier.He verbally (and heavily implied to emotionally and even physically) abused his daughter Vanessa into becoming his accomplice, making sure that she kills anyone who gets too close to the truth.
- It is revealed that Vanessa turned out to be William's spy as she was sent by her father to watch over Mike so she can keep an eye on him. It is also revealed that William doesn't care for Vanessa due to the fact that he was using her for doing the dirty work, despite her being his daughter.
- He's heavily implied to have intentionally gotten several night guards killed by the animatronics at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza prior to the events of the film by having them hired there.
- After coming across an unemployed Mike Schmidt years after killing his brother while disguised as "Steve Raglan", he convinced him to become the newest night guard at the pizzeria with the intent of getting him killed by the animatronics for unknown reasons.
- He also mocked Mike earlier in the film for losing his previous job by attacking a father that he mistakenly believed to be a kidnapper, which is completely hypocritical on his part considering he's done much worse.
- After the first four nights, he eventually arrives at the pizzeria himself on the fifth night, fully dressed in the same springlock suit he used during his original murders and attempts to personally kill Mike, proceeding to brutally overpower him while sadistically taunting him about how he killed Garrett and how Abby will join his victims as another possessed animatronic.
- When the animatronics turn against him after Abby replaces his drawing of him with one that shows William killing the missing children to show the animatronics what really happened, he angrily taunted them about what they had become, calling them "wretched, rotten little beasts" (revealing that he actually doesn't care for the animatronics) and arrogantly proclaiming that he "made" them.
- While his death and his possessed body being left in the backroom by Golden Freddy were both horrible, they're not played for any sympathy (unlike his victims), but well-deserved considering what he did to Mike, Vanessa and the missing children. Even William himself feels confident about returning despite initially showing fear and cowardice, as he claimed he "always comes back" and willingly re-equipped the Yellow Rabbit mascot head while slowly dying as he instead shows confidence that he will return in the sequels as Springtrap by possessing the suit.
- Although he is portrayed somewhat comedically with his hammy nature, he is still played completely seriously in-universe.
- While he did Hire Mike Schmidt after learning he is the brother of Garrett, it was for pragmatic reason so Mike wouldn't find out he killed his brother and also to kill Abby who wasn’t even a threat to him.
What prevents him from being pure evil?[]
- He was shocked that he stabbed his own daughter showing that he has his limits and only stabbed her because he was forced too.
Trivia[]
- William Afton is Matthew Lillard's third serial killer role in a film, the first being Stu Macher, one of the original Ghostfaces from Scream, and the second being David Roy Turner from Criminal Minds.
- Afton's knife wipe while in the Yellow Rabbit suit is a reference to Ghostface's signature and iconic move in Scream.
- Back in December 2022, when it was announced that William Afton would be played by Matthew Lillard, fans started making memes of Shaggy Rogers from the Scooby-Doo franchise committing Afton's heinous murders while wearing purple clothing. This is due to Matthew portraying Shaggy in the theatrical live-action Scooby-Doo films, as well as being the animated character's current voice actor in several animated Scooby-Doo movies and episodes since 2010.
- Serial killers and infamous criminals such as Edmund Kemper, Robert Berchtold, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer were inspirations for this version of Afton.
- The name Steve Raglan is almost an anagram to the word "everlasting". Assuming this isn't a coincidence, it could be a callback to Afton being infamous for cheating death several times.
- Afton as Raglan has a role very similar to that of the Phone Guy from the original games, instructing Mike on how to do his job through the phone likely as a reference to the debunked theory where the Phone Guy was actually the killer.
- The movie counterpart of William Afton taking the identity of Steve Raglan is most likely a reference to the same way Afton's counterpart in the novel trilogy took the identity of Dave Miller to make sure no one finds the bodies of his victims in the animatronics.
- Director Emma Tammi described casting Matthew Lillard as William Afton as "The number-one role that we really had the fan-base in mind for".
- His behavior before his death seems to imply that he will return as Springtrap in the future, now trapped in the rabbit suit, similar to his video game counterpart.
- While it's clearly meant to be the suit, Afton's costume is never called "Spring Bonnie" in the movie, known only as "the Yellow Rabbit".
- This might be a slight reference to how Golden Freddy was ultimately just a fan nickname made canon, and how he was called simply "Yellow Bear" in the files of the first game, though it may also be because none of the characters knew the name of the animatronic.
- There are several differences between William Afton in the film and William Afton in the video games such as:
- In the games, Mike Schmidt is an alias used by Afton's son Michael Afton. In the movie, they're unrelated in any way, and instead it's Vanessa who's Afton's child under a false identity.
- In the games, Afton appears to speak in a Southeastern English accent. In the film, he speaks with an American accent. Also, Afton’s manner of speaking in the games and novels is more calm, methodical, and poetic, akin to Hannibal Lecter. However, in the film, he speaks in a psychotic, deranged, and unhinged voice.
- Afton's car in the video games is purple, while in the film his car is black.
- In the movie, Afton uses the fake name Steve Raglan (similarly to how his novel counterpart used the fake name Dave Miller) whereas the games version of William Afton is never stated to have used any aliases.
- This Afton is not explicitly stated to be one of the owners or founders of Freddy's or related in any capacity with Fazbear Entertainment.
- He is, however, heavily implied to be.
- In the movie, Afton's appearance bears a striking resemblance to his novel counterpart having the same dark brown hair, grayish eyes, and pale skin with the only difference that Afton sports a goatee and gold aviator glasses. This resemblance is strengthened in the films climax when Afton is seen without his glasses.
- The scene in which the Animatronics drag Afton's dying body is a recreation of the same scene from the first part of the Novel Trilogy, The Silver Eyes.
- Despite it being stated otherwise, fans theorize that Afton is Mike's father as he is in the games, and that the filmmakers are hiding the connection in the case future films are made. It should be noted that Afton's kidnapping of Garrett was rather uncommon compared to the other killings, due to the picnic taking place in the middle of nowhere in the woods, implying that Afton's kidnapping of Garrett was targeted for specific reasons. Not to mention that Afton recognized Mike based on his last name, despite the fact that it was never mentioned how Afton knew Mike's last name connected him to Garrett. Due to Scott Cawthon's unusual form of storytelling, fans believe that detail was intentional and will be brought up in future movies.
- Many fans theorize the idea that Afton and Mike's mother had divorced prior to the film's events and she remarried another man, making Garrett Mike's half-brother. This would lead to Afton kidnapping Garrett and killing him as revenge for Mike's mom leaving him, and trying to murder Mike and Abby to kill the children of his former wife.
- However, fans also theorize that Mike's father, as shown in his dream, could actually be the film's version of Henry Emily, due to the resemblance between the father and the technician working on the animatronics in the video tape. This led to the idea that Garrett is the film's stand-in for Charlotte, and Afton kidnapped him to take revenge on Henry for leaving his company or other unknown reasons. The fact that Mike's father is implied to have committed suicide, similar to Henry doing so in the novels, furthers this.
- This would explain why Afton drew out his attempted murder of Mike rather than killing him on the spot, possibly wanting to spite him for being Henry's kid.
- Ironically, this would mean the Afton and Emily families switched places, with Henry having three children, two boys and one girl, while Afton has only one daughter (although she is Vanessa instead of Charlotte).
- While William Afton is currently Near Pure Evil, this status may change when he returns in a possible Five Nights at Freddy's sequel, as the filmmakers behind the film plan to do a trilogy.
External Links[]
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