Dead By Daylight’s recent trailer to tease the upcoming Chapter 21 has left many fans with lots of questions and guesses about what the next DLC will entail. The popular 4v1 horror game has been around since 2016 and expanded to a wide list of platforms, with crossplay being implemented about a year ago. The franchise has always been known for its Killers and Survivors, with crossovers with well-known horror franchises being immensely popular.Dead By Daylighthas also had its own original Killer and Survivor characters, but the new trailer seems to suggest another horror crossover.
The most recentDead By Daylightcrossover was withResident Evil, just in time forDead By Daylight’s fifth anniversary. Other notable horror franchise crossovers have includedHalloween,A Nightmare on Elm Street,Silent Hill, and even Netflix’sStranger Things. The new teaser seems to have fans divided on ifDead By Daylightwill feature notable characters from horror cult-classicHellraiseror the well-knownFive Nights at Freddy’sgames. However, some important information makesHellraiserthe most likely upcoming crossoverandFive Nights at Freddy’spretty improbable.
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Fans who watched the minute-long Chapter 21 teaser were quick to point out the clues they thought indicated the upcoming DLC reveal. Some fans saw manyHellraisereaster eggs, while others thought a reflection in the television looked like Springtrap fromFive Nights at Freddy’s. AHellraisercollaboration seems much more likely than aFive Nights at Freddy’scrossover.
The teaser itself shows a dated television set with a static-filled screen and the numbers 19:87 in the upper right-hand corner. Through the static, viewers are able to see a blooming red flower which is very similar to, if not the same as, the scene fromtheHellraisermovie. Additionally, the original movie came out in 1987, the same year as the numbers displayed on-screen, and a bell sound plays at the end of the teaser that’s very reminiscent of the same sound inHellraiserthat indicates the Cenobites are coming.
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While a collaboration betweenDead By DaylightandFNaFwould have been interesting, odds are something like that won’t be happening in the future.Dead By Daylighthas a well-noted and well-supported LGBTQ+ player base, so a collaboration withFive Nights at Freddy’swouldn’t be well-received by players. Recently,Scott Cawthon, creator ofFNaF, had his political donationscome to light, the majority of which were incredibly right-leaning and harmful to marginalized communities.
Essentially, Cawthon actively donated money toward those who seek to stop the protection of marginalized communities, which didn’t sit right with someFive Nights at Freddy’splayers. Cawthon’s political affiliation and donations alienated a lot of his marginalized player base, like his LGBTQ+ fans. While someFNaFplayers came out in support of the creator, others vowed to never pick up aFive Nights at Freddy’sgame again.
Dead By Daylighthas been incredibly receptiveto its LGBTQ+ fans from the start, even having a Pride month celebration during June that added a Rainbow Flag Charm to the game. Behaviour Interactive, the developer ofDead By Daylight, is also currently working with GaymerX, an organization that works to uplift LGBTQ+ voices in the gaming industry, to add LGBTQ+ characters into the game. Having this sort of representation is important in the games industry, and many studios don’t go to the lengths Behaviour is to verify the representation is done correctly.
WithDead By Daylight’s dedication to its LGBTQ+ fans in mind, a collaboration withFive Nights at Freddy’swould be shocking and ultimately hypocritical of the precedent the asymmetrical horror game has put in place.Dead By Daylight, unlike Cawthon’sFive Nights at Freddy’s, has always celebrated its LGBTQ+ players, so a crossover withFNaFwould alienate a large part of its player base.Hellraiser, on the other hand, is a classic horror IP that would add interesting gameplay toDead By Daylight, making it the obvious upcoming collaboration choice for Chapter 21.
Dead By Daylightis available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
