FNaF: The Knockoff Fredbear's Theory
I've always thought it was really strange that Fazbear Entertainment existed before the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurants, as depicted in SotM, which takes place in 1979.
Well, what if it did?
I believe that Freddy Fazbear's Pizza already existed for years before 1979. But not anywhere near where the gameplay takes place. In the UK. Yes, I know this sounds super crazy, and I'm basically only basing this off the Aftons' British accents, but bear with me.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and Fazbear Entertainment were founded in the UK, some time in the 1970s. In the late 1970s, they discovered that someone in America made a knockoff called Fredbear's Family Diner. They took this as an opportunity to expand to the US, and acquired the restaurant. They kept the Fredbear branding because it was what the American market was already familiar with, but renamed the restaurant to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
This is why the springlock training tapes in FNaF 3 say Freddy Fazbear's Pizza instead of Fredbear's Family Diner. This also explains why Phone Guy in FNaF 2 said he “thinks” the original restaurant was called Fredbear's Family Diner “or something like that”. They never operated under that name, so of course it makes sense that he’d be a bit unsure. He also said that there was a singular “original owner” and that they probably couldn't ever track anybody down from there. It's because the guy who started the knockoff restaurant is long gone.
William Afton, a higher-up from the UK, was put in charge to make the Fazbear Entertainment version of Fredbear's Family Diner. He partnered with Henry Emily, an American engineer, to build the animatronics for the US expansion. The corporation wanted to eventually phase out the American Fredbear characters entirely and replace it with their main Freddy Fazbear lineup. However, because Fredbear was already popular in America, they had to do it slowly.
This explains the oddities of FNaF 4:
The FNaF 4 Toys and TV Show: The Fredbear & Friends cartoon and the Freddy/Bonnie/Chica/Foxy merchandise in 1983 and earlier weren't just brand new characters they randomly invented out of the blue. They were part of an advertising push from the UK branch to introduce Fredbear's "friends" to the American market before officially retiring Fredbear.
The Duplicates: This is why we have Fredbear/Freddy and Spring Bonnie/Bonnie simultaneously. They are literally the old knockoff characters side-by-side with the new corporate replacements.
The Stupid Name "Spring Bonnie": The original yellow rabbit was just called Bonnie in the knockoff diner. When Fazbear Entertainment wanted to introduce their indigo rabbit who has the same name, they slapped the technical, clunky prefix "Spring" onto the old character to intentionally make him sound worse and less appealing to kids, accelerating the phase-out.
After the bite of '83, they chose to finally switch completely to Freddy Fazbear characters and branding, because they knew that the Fredbear character would never be viewed the same ever again.
Well, what do you think of my theory? I know this theory sounds completely bonkers, but I think it's a really interesting idea. Even if you don't think this is plausible at all, it's still a cool Alternate Universe idea.
Miscellaneous:
While all the pizza boxes in SotM—which took place in 1979—say Fredbear's Family Diner on them, I believe they're all from the original knockoff restaurant. McM was abandoned around 1975, so that would just mean that Fazbear Entertainment started running the restaurant sometime between 1975-1979, or they could've possibly been using leftover pizza boxes from the old restaurant for a brief period.
Fazbear Entertainment could've possibly been running the restaurant under two names, which would explain any inconsistencies as to whether the restaurant is call Freddy's or Fredbear's. There are examples of this in the real world. For example, a pizza place near me that I really love is advertised with two different names: Maxwell's Pizza and Fat Kid's Pizza.
Fredbear's Singing Show could've been a promotional event at the restaurant during the 1970s which McM helped with, which is why there is a poster of it in the factory.