Lore Development:

The final storyline was mostly developed by me, though I did have assistance from @JacobKosco and @Bas_ .

I came onto the team only a few days or weeks after the initial cancellation of the original HD, when I began writing the story I was honestly still a bit salty from HD's constant writing problems (some honestly my fault) where the story kept getting changed over and over, with the final version honestly not being my favorite at all.

So when I was in the process of writing this, I tried to distance the story away from the older variants than my initial methods back in HD's old dev team.

With this in mind, me and Jacob decided to do the first set of writing pitches, initially coming up with two separate pitches.

My pitch was that for a trilogy, based on the first 3 TRTF Games, with Jacob's being a full Volume 1 reimagining. After many votes and discussions within the team, we decided on going with my take. At some point, the series had to rebrand itself from HD, and thus the new name for the planned saga was born...

The Return to Freddy's: Triple Act Trilogy.

The Beginning:

The year is 1985.

Alexander Thompson, more commonly known by his nickname "Alison" decides to open up a small diner for his company (Thompson Technologies) ten year anniversary, this location is called Fredbear's Family Diner, a small local business with a small arcade, a dining hall, a bar, and entertainment from animatronics.

These animatronics however are quite advanced, they're called Fredbear Goldberg and Spring E. Bonnie, two springlock animatronics that double as animatronic and suits, created by Alison himself.

The place was a success but would soon garner competition.

A different company called Takaliken Bros Entertainment, owned by brothers Gron and Charles Takaliken, decided to try a new venture after they're previous travelling circus act was shut down by new legal laws.

So back in their hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma, they would open up Frankburt's Pizza Parlor, a much larger location featuring Frankburt the Comedian, Sugar the Magician, Buster the Waiter, Dug the Drummer, and Vigo the Snake. These robots were made by Gron's wife, Lynda, based on her and Gron's son, Bryce Takaliken, as well as a variety of other inspirations such as a burger joint in Texas, a rabbit Lynda used to have, one of the snakes from Gron's cirucs days, and a dog belonging to the third Takaliken brother, Jackson.

These characters could roam around and interact with customers, which began a massive competition between the two locations, soon enough it was evident that Frankburt's one as the springlocks were later revealed to be unsafe and have caused incidents and lawsuits, this forces Thompson Tech to go out of business, with them abandoning the company's warehouse and shutting Fredbear's down.

Incident of 96:

Takaliken Bros Entertainment sees this as an opportunity to expand their location and so bought out the entirety of Thompson Tech from Alison. During this buyout, Gron notices that Frankburt had begun to worn down and has began to look unnerving towards customers, luckily after the buyout, he would find some old blueprints from Thompson Tech and handed them over to Lynda.

Turns out, Alison had begun designing new characters to replace the golden duo at Fredbear's, these characters included Freddy Fazbear, a successor to Fredbear, Bonnie Bunny, a successor to Spring E. Bonnie, Chica Chicken, a new female cast member, Foxy the Pirate Fox, a new character aimed for a more adult audience, and The Marionette, a humanoid character to give Frankburt a run for his money.

These designs would then be used by the company to replace Frankburt, with an entirely new location to replace Frankburt's. After a massive renovation and the animatronics were built, Freddy Fazbear's Diner was opened to the public on 1996 to massive success. This success however made Alison mad, feeling as if his characters that he never finished were now made without him, he felt like the Takalikens were doing it out of spite, so he hatches a plan.

One night, Alison runs into one of his old employees, Vincent Garrett, he threatens him with a gun, telling him that he would do what he says or else he'll murder his pregnant wife. Afraid for his family, Vincent obliges, Alison then tells him to enter Freddy's and kill the Takalikens, even handing him a gun.

The next day, Vincent enters through the back and uses the Spring E. Bonnie suit, he then runs out to shoot Charles, causing mass panic. Gron and Lynda were in another room with Bryce, as this was his birthday, Gron tells his son to run and hide somewhere, which he obliges. Lynda then gets shot and Gron tries to fight back before getting shot as well.

Vincent heads for the back exit to find Bryce dead in the Frankburt suit and runs out.

Act 1: 1996

Following the shooting at Freddy's, Alison was called back on to replace the initial leadership killed in the gunfire, he would then rebrand the company to Fazbear Incorporated and promise the public new security measures in the form of facial recognition tech installed into the robots, this expensive overhaul even caused the company to sell Vigo to a pawn shop.

Vincent was then rehired by Alison as a sort of "reward" for doing his job, but Vincent would secretly try to get Alison exposed, to do this he hires Jackson Takaliken, who applied for the job to find out more about his missing nephew. During the nights, Jackson would see that the animatronics began to act up, this is the work of Charles, who possesses the Marionette and now controls the robots as puppets. Lynda and Gron are also there, in the form of an Apparition and a Shadowy version of Frankburt.

During these shifts, he would also conduct investigations after each night, finding strange footage with a twitching woman, drawings that alluded to the shadowy Frankburt, even interacting with the Marionette and damaging Sugar and Buster. But it was after night 4 that he finds something crazy, he finds Alison's notes about his plans to kill the Takalikens in his office, he decides to steal these and after Jackson was fired on night 5, heads to the back room after he sees a notice memo to not touch Frankburt.

He goes up to Frankburt and finds Bryce's body, this causes him to run away back home, where he decides to sleep off the day before contemplating on what to do next. This is where he has a nightmare of Frankburt, the Marionette, Shadow Frankburt, and the Apparition attacking him, He survives this nightmare and wakes up to a doorbell, only to find a man in a red trenchoat, who shoots him twice and takes back the files.

Jackson's son, Carson, would see the fate of his father and the man walking back to his car. Jackson however lives on, inhabiting the old Fredbear suit and lying in wait.

Act 2: Grand Reopening

Following strange behavior from the animatronics and supposed sightings of ghosts, Freddy Fazbear's Diner closes by the end of the year, the animatronics are taken to a storage garage, and Fazbear Incorporated seemingly goes out of business.

This was until 2008, 12 years after the incident of 96, when Fazbear Incorporated tried to capitalize on nostalgia by opening up a new, even better location, called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Playhouse, featuring revamped designs of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Marionette, and even Sugar. Dug and Buster were still in the middle of retrofitting and were left in the backroom alongside Frankburt and the golden duo.

Carson, now an adult, decides to investigate the place as he decides to reopen the 96 case due to his belief that the man who killed his father is also the man responsible for shooting up his extended family as well as the disappearance of his cousin.

He goes into Freddy's undercover, with the fake name of James Calfron, he would work nights and get calls from Vincent and after every night, Carson would do post work on cleaning and maintaining the place, finding secrets along the way. However on Night 5, Vincent tells him that the animatronics have become unstable and that he needs to get out of there, Carson would try to run out before Dug catches up and bites him in the head, killing him and causing him to become the ghostly figure of Shadow Dug.

Following this incident, Freddy's is forced to close, before it does however, Vincent needs to guard the cargo of the place before they could be shipped off. This time, all the members of the Takaliken family go after him, eventually Frankburt getting to him and shoving him into the Spring E. Bonnie suit, killing him, However, when the souls didn't move on, they interrogate him, finding out that Alison was behind all this.

Angry, they force his soul into a nearby arcade machine, leaving him trapped there until he can fix this.

Act 3: Curtain Call

It's been 8 years since the closure of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Playzone.

The year is 2016, three entrepreneurs named Wilson Johnson, Chun Phillips, and Blake Garrett decides to try and bring back Freddy's as they had nostalgia of the place, Blake in particular remembering the good times when he always goes there with his father. The approached Alison, who agreed to help them as he's a financially shrewd businessman who is pretty greedy tbh.

The trio decide to reuse the old Thompson Tech warehouse and began going all over the county to collect the animatronics for the place, Blake would work night shift and sees the animatronics moving. But when he tried telling Wilson and Chun, they called him crazy, he then realizes that the arcade machine in his office would try and talk to him, inside was a mysterious glitching avatar that told him how to survive the night as well as what's going on.

By night 5, the sprite reveals himself as Vincent, Blake's long lost father that went missing, he reveals to his son the mistakes he made, apologizing to him and telling him that he did all of this to protect him, that the spirits still inhabiting the building still wants freedom. After making peace with the Takalikens, Blake devises a plan to lure Alison to his death.

The next morning, Alison arrives per Wilson and Chun's request, who wanted to see if Alison likes what the trio have been working on for the location, Blake then directs him to Frankburt and while talking, he gives the signal. Bryce, inside Frankburt, heads down the stage and tears Alison to pieces much to the horror of Chun and Wilson, the cops were soon called and the FBI demands the place be shut down.

Blake works one last night, getting a call from Wilson that they are shutting down and demolishing the building, that's when he sees the old Spring Bonnie suit tore apart the other robots and becoming a robot known as the Beast. After his shift is done, Blake runs out just as the building goes down and collapses, when the authorities finds the bodies of Vincent and Bryce as well as Alison's records, the mysteries of Fazbear were put to rest. The spirits would be set free, thanks to Alison's death, who was probably sent to hell.

The End

Now of course, HD/TAT is never coming back, at least not that I know off. I sort of always consider this a melancholy fate for the series, on the one hand I wished it was finished and released but on the other hand I'm glad that HD itself is over as in my eyes it brought nothing but drama and waste of time.

Of course, successor projects are possible, but I doubt HD itself is ever coming back in it's purest form.

However, there are still many great TRTF Projects on the horizon and I would love to shoutout a few in development which look fantastic (and I even work on one of them!):

-TRTF 5 TacoMan Edition is an attempt at an accurate version of the actual TRTF 5, seeing what the finished product could have been using every source imaginable!

-Freddy's Emporium is Mortuus' take on the mysterious vague world of the cancelled official TRTF Reboot, Chapter 1. Titled after the game's signature location, secure the establishment from vandals while keeping an eye on the Emporium's signature mascots!

-TRTF Legacy is a reboot of the original that started it all developed by It'sRockman. After the old Freddy's closed it's doors, the company has decided to rebrand it's image with a new location and new animatronics. Needing security, the company sets out to find themselves a new security guard, and you happened to take the job!

-TRTF Stories is another reboot of the original, this time by ShotRabbet. Following the closure of the original location from FNaF 1, the company returns with a new location, repaired animatronics, and even two new mascots. With a position open, you take on the job as the location's nightly security guard...

-TRTF 2 Reimagined is a reimagining of the original TRTF 2 made by Sally Spritebear and is the beginning of an entirely new reboot series for TRTF. Playing as Brian F. Parker, you return back to your hometown in preperation for your big birthday celebration! While there however, you noticed that the Flagship location of the Fredbear's Family Diner franchise is in need of a night watchmen following a recent controversy, so why not take the job?

-Frankburt's House Chapter 1 is the beginning of an entire new TRTF saga developed by VixDev. Following a tragic set of circumstances, Fazbear's had collapsed. That was until a new investor came in and with new funding, the company reopens with new plans...

And that's basically everything, I hope you all enjoy what I have in store, if you have any questions let me know as I'll try to answer it to the best I could.

Have a great anniversary everyone!

-William F. Fazworth, Former Writer and VA for TaT.