WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Five Nights At Freddy's.

Summary

• Vanessa is a key character in the Five Nights At Freddy's movie, which makes some significant changes to her game counterpart.
• Vanessa helps Mike take down the animatronics and is injured by her father. She ends up in a coma, but Mike vows to be there for her when she wakes up.
• In the games, Vanessa is a more villainous character who is not related to Afton. The movie combines elements from her character to Elizabeth Afton.

Five Nights At Freddy's Vanessa is a key character in the live-action film as well as in the video games. The movie stars Elizabeth Lail as Vanessa, and she acts alongside Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson and young actress Piper Rubio to finally bring the world of Five Nights At Freddy's to the big screen. Vanessa serves as something of a sidekick to Hutcherson's Mike throughout the film.

While it turns out everything is not as it seems with her, by Five Nights At Freddy's characters compared to the video game, but it kept the overall essence the same. Vanessa shared a lot of the same characteristics as her video game counterpart, but there were also some significant differences.

Vanessa Is William Afton's Daughter In Five Nights At Freddy's

At first, In Five Nights At Freddy's, Vanessa seems very innocent. She's a police officer who shows up at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza while Mike is working as a night guard. The two form a fast friendship as Vanessa helps Mike tend to his wounds after he has a bad dream. However, it's later revealed that Vanessa has a dark past and connection to Mike's younger brother's disappearance.

Vanessa confesses that her father is William Afton, the man who kidnapped and murdered Mike's brother, as well as the five children who haunt Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. She also reveals that William has control over the killer mascots at Freddy's and the souls of the missing children. Mike soon realizes that William plans to murder him and his younger sister, Abby.

What Happens To Vanessa In Five Night At Freddy's

Mike and Vanessa get into an argument after Vanessa confesses the truth to him. He's furious that she would sit back and watch Abby play with the animatronics, knowing that they were capable of murder and planned to hurt him and Abby. However, Vanessa makes it up to Mike by helping him take down the animatronics. She gives him a Taser the police department uses for animal control because electricity is the key to defeating the animatronics.

She then tries to leave, claiming she's not able to help them if she comes in with her father. However, she ends up helping them anyway and has to come face-to-face with her father. He's angry that she didn't keep up the deal where she was supposed to kill Mike and Abby, and out of anger, he chokes her.

However, he lets her go when he sees Abby, his number one victim. At the end of Five Nights At Freddy's, Vanessa suffers wounds from her father, and Mike and Abby have to carry her out of the restaurant. She goes into a coma afterward, and Mike visits her in the hospital, where he thanks her for helping him and Abby, letting her know he'll be there for her when she wakes up.

How Vanessa Is Different From William's Daughter In The FNAF Games

Vanessa is based on the Five Nights At Freddy's video game character with the same name. Physically, "movie Vanessa" looks pretty similar to "game Vanessa," with blonde hair she wears in a ponytail and big green eyes. However, in of her role in the story and connections to Afton, they were essentially different characters. In Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted, Vanessa is responsible for killing nine people while in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, she has an almost sadistic personality.

In the games, Vanessa is a more villainous character whose first physical appearance only happened in 2021's Security Breach. The movie changed her to be someone the audience can sympathize with by having her face her father, help Mike, and then end up in a coma afterward. Interestingly, while she's William Afton's daughter in the movie, this isn't the case in the video games at all. In the source material, William's daughter is a young girl named Elizabeth Afton. Whereas Vanessa knew her father was a bad guy and feared him, Elizabeth ired her father.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth's fate is way worse than Vanessa's in the Five Nights At Freddy's movie. Elizabeth was killed by Circus Baby, and then her soul possessed it. She is later killed as Circus Baby when she's lured into a vent, burning to death. Elizabeth is also significantly younger than Vanessa, as she appears as a child in the games while Vanessa in the movie is an adult. Her personality is of a sweet girl, but she's also quite entitled, as she believes Circus Baby was made for her.

Elizabeth Lail Plays Vanessa In Five Nights At Freddy's

Elizabeth Lail is the actress who portrays Vanessa in Five Nights At Freddy's. While the movie version of Vanessa was significantly different from the game, Lail perfectly portrayed the character. Some of Elizabeth Lail's most important characters include the live-action version of Frozen's Princess Anna in Once Upon A Time and Lola Morgan in the 2021 reboot of Gossip Girl. She is also known for playing Beck, Joe Goldberg's first victim in You season 1.

Will Vanessa Return In Five Nights At Freddy's 2?

Five Nights At Freddy's 2 has not been officially confirmed. However, director Emma Tammi itted she'd love to do another movie and seemingly has plans to turn the films into a franchise. Without any confirmation of the film, it's hard to say which cast mates will make it into the sequel. However, based on how Five Nights At Freddy's ended, it seems likely Vanessa will appear in a potential sequel. While she might not have had the best ending, ending up in a coma, at least Vanessa made it out alive.

When Mike visits Vanessa in the hospital, it's obvious he's no longer mad at her for putting his and Abby's lives at risk. He seems to have hope that she'll wake up from her coma, and when she does, Mike wants her to be a part of his life. While the franchise could always end things there and not have her be a part of the second film, she most likely will be.

Vanessa was a major part of Five Nights At Freddy's, and now that Mike trusts her and believes she isn't a villain after all, she could offer him a lot of help in the second film. This is especially true because she has so much knowledge, given that William Afton is her father. With Vanessa returning in a potential Five Nights At Freddy's 2, the sequel could also borrow more elements from William's in-game daughter, Elizabeth.