On Friday, October 10, Blumhouse hosted its annual BlumFest, a panel at New York Comic Con where cast and creatives–including Jason Blum–discuss the upcoming slate of projects. This year marks 15 years for the company, so fans were ready for something big.

Announcements from the panel included films like the Black Phone 2 (which releases next week), the upcoming Insidious 6, and a look at some of the game titles coming to Blumhouse Games. The announcement of Sleep Awake, a first-person psychedelic horror set in the far future, was given by none other than Nine Inch Nails’s Robin Finck, who is the game’s creative director.

The biggest draw was the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. While it seemed that the panel was beginning to wrap up and we would be left with nothing more than a brief announcement, Blum was joined onstage by the film’s director, Emma Tammi, and Elizabeth Lail, who plays Vanessa Shelly. Moments later, the stage was crashed by none other than Matthew Lillard, who plays the film’s villain, William Afton.

While no additional trailer or footage was shown, fans were treated to a horrifying sight: Out of the darkness of the wings ambled two life-size animatronics of Toy Freddy and Toy Bonnie. While I wilted in horror, the rest of the room screamed their delight as the voice actors behind these wretched costumes were revealed.

Surprise casting announcements ahead

Toy Freddy will be voiced by Kellan Goff, who voiced Glamrock Freddy, Sun, and Moon in the game Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. Toy Bonnie will be voiced by none other than Matthew Patrick (MatPat) of the YouTube channel The Game Theorists.

One final announcement was made, and was undoubtedly the most shocking of them all: Toy Chica as played by Megan Fox. Though Fox could not be at the panel, her involvement seemingly comes down to her kids being fans of the material.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 hits theaters December 5. The fate of a third installment is still up in the air, but not for long, according to Lillard. He promised the crowd that if enough love was shown for the sequel, the third installment would be as good as guaranteed.

BlumFest felt bare this year, but many of the company’s projects are still early in development. Sleep Awake seems like the most exciting thing on their roster by far, so it will be interesting to see the fan reactions to it once it is released.

(featured image: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for ReedPop)

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Rachel Tolleson

Rachel (she/her) is a freelancer at The Mary Sue. She has been freelancing since 2013 in various forms, but has been an entertainment freelancer since 2016. When not writing her thoughts on film and television, she can also be found writing screenplays, fiction, and poetry. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her cats Carla and Thorin Oakenshield but is a Midwesterner at heart. She is also a tried and true emo kid and the epitome of “it was never a phase, Mom,” but with a dual affinity for dad rock. If she’s not rewatching Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul she’s probably rewatching Our Flag Means Death.

As Blumhouse celebrates 15 years of bringing horror to audiences, studio head Jason Blum looks back on some of his biggest triumphs (M3GAN) and misfires (M3GAN 2.0) in a new interview, which also draws out some of his more recent regrets—and his plans and hopes for the future. One thing we won’t be seeing, apparently, is a Blumhouse take on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre after the company came up short in the recent IP bidding war.

“We were in the mix. The deal isn’t closed, but we probably won’t get it,” Blum told Variety; the trade noted that A24, with a producing team that includes Glen Powell, is the clear frontrunner. There’s no elaboration on what a Blumhouse Texas Chain Saw might have looked like, but Blum noted, “I like taking IP that people are cynical about and turning expectations on their head.”

That definitely happened with 2018’s Halloween—though the excitement over David Gordon Green’s reboot trilogy faded with each new entry, and Blumhouse is no longer steering the good ship Michael Myers. “We don’t own the rights anymore. I had a three-picture deal,” Blum explained, though he’s not closed off to future opportunities: “I would do another Hallo­­w­een movie.”

A franchise Blumhouse does have in its stable now is Saw, though there are no firm details yet on what shape that long-running series will take next. “It’s really hard to make 10 movies in a franchise—I don’t take that away from the original series’ producers. And I’m grateful to them for allowing us to continue,” Blum said. “My creative outlook is what I always preach: get the people who made the magic in the first place more involved. James Wan [the original director] will be hugely involved. That’s how we’re going to reinvent it.”

As for Blum’s dream projects… can you guess? Take a wild guess.

“Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger, those are my two white whales,” he told Variety, which pointed out the rights for both Friday and A Nightmare on Elm Street are tied up elsewhere.

“We’re always haggling. I make a run at them every day. I will never give up the quest,” Blum said. (Presumably that means he’s talked to team Jason Universe.) “And if they make one without me, I’ll chase the next movie.”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.