Markiplier Reveals Why He Had to Turn Down Role in Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie

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YouTuber Markiplier has revealed why he had no choice but to turn down a role in the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie.

Markiplier, real name Mark Edward Fischbach, is known as “the King of FNAF” for his hugely popular YouTube videos featuring the horror game series. He’d dropped one or two hints of his intended involvement in the movie, sparking excited fan speculation about what the role might have been.

In a new video published to his YouTube channel, which boasts 35.6 million subscribers, Markiplier said a scheduling clash between the Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie and his own movie, Iron Lung, ended his hopes of appearing in the film.

“It was supposed to happen,” he said. “There was a time it was supposed to occur, and unfortunately the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie and my movie, Iron Lung, were being filmed at the exact same time. It was nothing more than it just so happening to be a conflict of schedule.

“Now despite that, I was trying to make it work… I was supposed to be out there for two days, but unfortunately it was one of those things where I needed every second that I had to make my movie what it needed to be… It was one of those things where I had to make a call. I wouldn’t expect them to compromise the quality of their project for me, just like I would hope they wouldn’t expect me to compromise my own movie on their behalf.”

The Five Nights at Freddy’s film comes out later this month. It’s directed by Emma Tammi from a screenplay she co-wrote with the game’s developer, Scott Cawthon. It follows a troubled security guard named Mike Schmidt who accepts a night-time job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where he discovers its four animatronic mascots move and kill anyone that is still there after midnight. The video below offers a good look at Blumhouse’s vision for the creepy animatronic puppets made famous on Twitch and elsewhere.

Iron Lung is an upcoming sci-fi horror written, directed, produced by, and starring Markiplier. It’s an adaptation of the 2022 submarine horror video game Iron Lung by David Szymanski. The game hit the headlines in June after it saw a sales spike following OceanGate’s Titan submersible going missing, something Szymanski said “feels so wrong”.

In his video, Markiplier explained further why the scheduling conflict between the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie and Iron Lung could not be resolved.

“There were so many things I had to do: flying out to go film for a very short turnaround and flying back… those were two days I couldn’t afford to lose. And that was two days if nothing happened,” he said.

“I couldn’t lose two days to do any of that, let alone more. It wasn’t a matter of pay. I don’t think I wanted any pay… I wanted to be in it… it was simply a matter that my schedule didn’t align.”

Unfortunately, Markiplier said he can’t talk about the role he would have played “since it obviously hasn’t come out yet”.

“There’s no animosity between me and the crew, and Scott, or anything like that,” he continued. “It just didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean I don’t support it. It doesn’t mean I’m not cheering for it.

“A year ago, I was telling them that it was really cool, but that I’m filming a project at this exact moment… I don’t know if they understood the level of production of what I’m doing… How could they? I have a high expectation for projects I make. Didn’t want it to be a mean surprise. Tried to make it work.”

In an earlier interview with IGN, Jason Blum talked about how he was “made fun of” for pursuing Five Nights at Freddy’s. He also said that he wants to make more horror films based on games. If Five Nights at Freddy’s does well enough, perhaps a sequel will be on the cards, in which case Markiplier may get a second chance.

Image credit: Markiplier / YouTube

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.