Do you hear that? It’s the sound of the Five Nights at Freddy hype train revving up once more. Here we go again!


Today, the Five Nights at Freddy fandom is going haywire over the image you see above. Yes, that image of nothing.

To understand why an image of Literally Nothing can be so evocative to hardcore FNAF fans, you have to understand the context. Earlier this year, I detailed how the official site of FNAF developer Scott Cawthon had a single image on it:


Many fans interpreted this image to mean that Five Nights at Freddy’s was done as a series—the hat is supposed to be a way of Cawthon saying, hey, thanks for all the memories, folks. Freddy is hanging his hat now. (Supposedly!)



Recently, the image on the website has disappeared. Given Cawthon’s history of using his website to tease things, people are speculating all sorts of things right now as to what the blank image means. Some people are wondering: is Freddy not actually hanging his hat; is there a FNAF 4 in the works?

Predictably, FNAF YouTube has gone haywire over this information as well. Here is a small selection of videos trying to analyze the meaning of a blank image:

There’s more on Twitter and Tumblr as well, but a good deal of the fandom meets on YouTube, so that reaction is the most remarkable.


I’m not sure this signals the coming of Five Nights at Freddy’s 4...not that the existence of a new game is that outlandish. That said, the lack of a hat could easily be interpreted as Cawthon cementing the idea he’s not making any more games. Or maybe this is a way to acknowledge that Freddy will live on in the movies or something.


Or maybe the blank image means absolutely nothing. Who knows! All we can do is sit back and enjoy the hype train, because it’s already left the station.