MAJOR FNAF MOVIE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT. THIS IS YOUR WARNING
Alright. This is my theory on the whole “Afton Family” thing. I think Michael, Abby, and Garrett are all still Afton’s, however, they weren’t raised by William.
In the games, we know that Mrs. Afton isn’t relevant to the lore and is absent in the Afton family’s lives.
This is what lead me to think perhaps they were divorced, but William got custody over the children in the game lore. Meanwhile in the MOVIE, Mrs. Afton won custody.
This is what leads to the fork in the universes between the games and the movie.
Since in the movie, the Afton kids weren’t raised by William, Michael and Garrett never went to Fredbear’s Family Diner or inhaled hallucinogenic gas that made them develop fears of the animatronics. Because of this, there is no ‘bite of 83’ in this universe.
Instead, William, angry that his wife took the kids in the divorce, kidnapped Garrett and killed him (rather than Michael)
We see in the movie that “Steve Raglan” pauses when saying Mike’s name.
After this, he begins to act strange towards Mike. Why? Because that’s his ex wife’s name. That’s when William made the realization that the person in front of him was his son whom he lost custody of and later murdered his brother.
So now to address some questions about this theory:
“But what about the parents?”
The parents that we see in the flashback are likely Mike and Garret’s mom, as well as their step dad.
This would mean that Mike and Abby are likely step-siblings since Abby wasn’t alive pre-divorce (unless their mom was already carrying Abby from her previous relationship with William by the time Garrett disappeared.)
A: She has a different mom and was raised by Afton after the divorce
B: Afton got custody of her, meanwhile in the game timeline, Mrs. Afton/Schmidt got custody instead
C: She just wasn’t born in the game timeline until much later (23 years before Help Wanted.)
I really hope this makes sense bc Im just rambling rn😭I’m also sick and barely coherent so I might rewrite this later so it’s actually comprehensible
TLDR: The FNAF movie lore is similar to the game lore, however, in the game lore, William gets custody of the kids. In the movie lore, Mrs. Afton/Schmidt gets custody of the kids, preventing the Bite of 83, and leading William to kidnap and murder Garrett instead.
