WMG / Poppy Playtime

As a WMG subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Huggy Wuggy is a lot smarter than he appears.

Taking into consideration that while being chased by Huggy Wuggy all the signs warning of danger are the correct route while the ones directing the player to follow lead right to him the graffiti can't be trusted. Additionally, given his behavior of stalking intruders, it's entirely possible the graffiti was written by Huggy to trick unsuspecting people right into his arms. That shows an understanding of deception and trickery far more than most animals making Huggy far smarter than he appears, enough to be the Big Bad of the game and might be planning to use Poppy to jumpstart plans for world conquest through using Playtime Co. to buy all the toy companies and then kill the world leaders so that Huggy Wuggy will be worshipped as king!

• Seemingly confirmed. The grey tape in Chapter 2 calls his intelligence "sufficient".

Poppy isn't an antagonist.

Rather she's an uneasy ally which would explain her uncertain almost fearful tone of voice at the end of Chapter 1 when her case is opened. If as mentioned above Huggy was writing most of the graffiti that would suggest he doesn't want intruders to find Poppy. She might be a threat to him and whatever else is in the factory.

• Seems confirmed, with her being passive during Chapter 2's run time, with her even helping the player character at one point, although the ending seems to complicate things a bit, but even then, it's unknown what she's planning]].
• Confirmed. Come chapter 3 and Poppy, along with Kissy Missy, are filling the player in on what happened at Playtime Co. Poppy tells the player how she needs their help in finally killing The Prototype, The apparent true villain.

Magic, specifically demonic magic was involved in the creation of the toys.

Or at least Poppy and Huggy Wuggy. Huggy Wuggy is the summoned demon and his powers are used to transfer souls into inanimate objects.

• Jossed: Huggy Wuggy and the other toys are experiments regarding poppy flowers, and according to one of the tapes, Huggy is perhaps the most obedient of these creations.

The player will be turned into a new toy.

The player may fall victim to whatever process gave Poppy a soul as a potential death.

Huggy Wuggy is a genetically engineered organism.

Based on his appearance and the fact he bleeds when he falls off the catwalk, it's clear he's a living being. He was likely a synthetic organism, or worse, used to be human...

• Confirmed for the Was Once a Man part

The player will have to fight back.

The instructional video for the grab pack includes how it can potentially rip a person’s head clean off. Odds are this may come into play at some point.

• Bonus points if it involves decapitation.
  • While it doesn't directly use the Grab Pack, the decapitation part is, surprisingly, Confirmed.
• Alternatively the player will obtain a new hand that is the form of a fist to either throw enemies back or smash them to pieces.

The founder of the company will be the true villain.

In one of the tapes in Chapter 2, we don't see Elliot Ludwig's face. This could lead to the following possibilities: not only are they saving him for the Final Boss, but he is Prototype 1006.

Huggy Wuggy will return.

Could be possible he somehow survives the fall from the catwalk or another Huggy Wuggy could appear in a later chapter.

• Confirmed: In a sense, since miniature Huggy Wuggy toys are enemies in Chapter 2 and a living Kissy Missy makes her debut appearance there as well.
• Confirmed with an appearance in Chapter 3 as well, although it is unknown whether this was him, another failed Huggy Wuggy experiment, or simply a hallucination caused by the Red Smoke.

Poppy and Stella are the same.

Aside from both having the same voice actress, in Stella's interview, she gets melancholy reflecting on her childhood and how playing with her toys felt like placing herself into another world, and how she wishes she could go back to how she was, before hastily adding that she meant being a kid (perhaps she was a fan of roleplaying as her toys). She also feels as though growing older and being an adult doesn't feel much different from being a kid, just... older. She adds with a note of bitterness that she doubts anyone ever really feels like an adult, their body simply gets older and older until they die. She brings up how some trees can stay alive for decades despite already being far older than humans, and finishes by stating that she supposes everyone is young relative to something. The longing in her voice is evident - she doesn't want to grow old and die, she wants to stay alive and feel young for as long as possible. Plus, given the experiments that the company was working on and how they seem to bleed human blood (including Huggy Wuggy), perhaps Stella was the first volunteer, and by far the most willing one (and given how the messages on the walls around the poppy flower door that leads to Poppy's room demand for trespassers to turn away and not to enter, it seems as though even Huggy is terrified of Poppy)... see where this is going?

• Adding to this, the trailer talks about how it's the toys' turn to play with their owners. Stella likes to play with things.
  • Stella's role as the announcer of the Game Station in Chapter 2 may joss this theory, as it assumes Poppy was already sealed away long before Stella was hired.
  • Jossed. Stella was interviewed and hired between 70s and 1991, while Poppy had to have been in her case since around the 1960s.

The experiments began after 8pm.

And perhaps anyone who stuck around after closing time would be roped into the experiments as an unfortunate test subject.

The player is a rogue experiment.

A possibility is that the player is one of the experiments being called back to the factory.

• This theory may explain several things. The player seems to be able to survive jumps that are otherwise not realistically survivable by ordinary people (Though the player can still die from falling if the height is too great). This might also be the explanation for why the player character is the Sole Survivor. Whatever happened, he was more resilient and therefore could survive whatever incident occurred in the factory. It does however raise the question of how the player is the size of a human adult (Unlike the other experiments) and how the player is decently smart (The player character can solve puzzles, but one of the VHS tapes implies that decent intelligence isn't common among the experiment results).
  • Possibly confirmed in some way, however, the fact that Mommy recognizes them as an employee might joss this.

Huggy Wuggy was trying to save you from yourself.

Poppy in reality will be a horror worse than anything else and was shut away for good reason. Huggy was another experiment that either was a better person overall or was just made to keep Poppy contained.

Therefore, all those messages scrawled on the walls warning you against continuing were scrawled by Huggy, and not as misleads or taunts. He is warning you against proceeding and releasing the evil that is Poppy from her case.

Of course, he may be radical in the sense that he might be willing to kill you to keep the secret of the place under wraps, as he seems to do whenever he catches you in the vents.

Bonus points if he's a human who somehow fused with the Huggy toy, as he possibly leaves blood spatter when he falls to his uncertain doom near the end of Chapter 1.

Leith Pierre was a former employee of Joey Drew Studios.

Probably quit that after trying to create a line of toys that Joey Drew thought was "hilariously stupid", forcing him to leave the studio and focus more on characters like Poppy and Huggy Wuggy. Unfortunately for Joey Drew those characters turned out to be just as popular as Bendy.

The toys are made from children.

Specifically, orphans. It's commonly assumed that toys like Huggy and Poppy are made using people; most assume it's factory workers or scientists. Adults. However, it's mentioned that the company worked closely with children's programs and orphanages, and there are posters encouraging workers to adopt and foster children. The employees are even given benefits if they do so. The posters also mention giving the orphans second chances at life. "I'm a real girl, just like you", indeed.

• Adding to this are the descriptions of the games in Chapter 2. While the voice in the main area of the game station talks about them in a fun and exciting way, as normally done when introducing a game to children, the tutorial videos in the games themselves describe them as tests, one for memory, one for reflexes, and one for physical fitness. This coldly scientific description would fit better if they were testing the children for something, maybe compatibility for their experiments?
• It seems pretty clear that on the outside, the Playcare seemed like a safe and fun place to keep all the children inside the orphanage program, but in reality, behind the scenes, this was where the company got all these people to experiment on. It's really hard to get tons of people to agree to have their bodies experimented on, so instead, they riled up all those orphans inside of the factory who didn't have any parents who could tell them no, and then they had a constant supply of kids inside the Playcare to experiment on.
  • What confirms this has to be the gas mask at the end of the Chapter 3 teaser trailer. While it seems meaningless at first, with the context of the Playcare being a place for children to be experimented on, the mask is clearly symbolism for science or experimentation, confirming that in Chapter 3, the Playcare is going to reveal what actually happened to the children that eventually ended up becoming twisted monsters like Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs.
• This might be further evidenced by the Chapter 3 trailer. When Elliot Ludwig is making his big, long speech about the opening of the Playcare, he makes a really weird and ironic statement, saying that the toys were nothing without "them", talking about the children of course. Also, near the end of the trailer, we start to hear people cheering and kids laughing and having fun, but that doesn't last as we eventually begin to hear the faint cries and screams that fill the entire ending of the trailer before it abruptly ends. The toys that appear at the end also appear to be lifeless, and it could be assumed that the toys got their life from the children that were being experimented on. It's honestly rather dark to think about the fact that those children being experimented on didn't have any parents or anything to protect them from the experiments. What's even worse is that since the children are heard screaming at the end of the trailer, that could mean they weren't aware of what was actually going on behind the scenes. Playtime Co. was using these children clearly because they could experiment on them without being caught because they were orphans. But as we hear the children cry and scream, it becomes clear that maybe they became aware as to what was being done to them as time passed. Having all those children slowly disappear inside the orphanage and get experimented on must eventually get pretty worrisome and when considering that, as we know, the experiments eventually failed, causing everyone (including the workers) to go missing, maybe all the screaming in the end is actually the children being attacked by a failed experiment (maybe Huggy Wuggy or Mommy Long Legs).
• Confirmed for at least some of the toys (Mommy Long Legs & CatNap).

The Playtime Co. was a front for top-secret U.S. military experiments.

During the day, the factory made harmless toys. After 8 PM, the real work began, possibly on researching and building weapons disguised as toys. (Which, sadly, is an actual thing.) One of these experiments, No. 1006 (Huggy Wuggy), went wrong and...well...

• Turns out that Huggy Wuggy isn't number 1006 - he's number 1170, with the only part of 1006 that we've seen being a mechanical arm that takes away Mommy Long Legs' remains at the end of chapter 2. He was graded as having "sufficient intelligence" and "maximum obedience", so it's possible that this hypothetical military experiment needs weapons capable of independent problem-solving while still retaining loyalty to their "owners".

Kissy Missy is going to appear in Chapter 2...

...And she's a remade version of Huggy Wuggy made by Mommy Long Legs. This is also what Mommy Long Legs was planning to do with Huggy during the trailer.

• Note that the Huggy in the trailer is a regular toy, given the size.
• Confirmed for Kissy Missy appearing in Chapter 2, and likely Jossed for her being a rebuilt Huggy. The two seem to be separate entities, and Kissy doesn't attack on sight.
  • To be fair, neither did Huggy. He silently watched the player, gave them a key, and then stalked them until they were cornered in the make-a-friend room.

Mommy Long Legs isn't going to be hostile.

The chapter 2 trailer never shows her directly attacking the player. Maybe she'll be a friendly character like Buddy Boris from Bendy and the Ink Machine

• Jossed. In a way, she's much worse than Huggy ever was. On the other hand, it seems like this may ring true for Kissy Missy.
  • In a way this was true at one point. Mommy ran the daycare and she was friendly…while children were around her anyway.

Kissy Missy was made to run the Playcare.

At the very end of Chapter 2, before the player completely blacks out after the train derails, we can see that the train made it to a place called the "Playcare". Judging by its name, it's where babies and toddlers (i.e., children far too young to play with Mommy Long Legs) were taken to when their parents visited the factory.

Kissy Missy doesn’t seem the least bit hostile when the player first encounters her. She even helps the player progress by opening a gate for them.

The reason for her lack of violence may be that she was made specifically to stay at the Playcare and babysit the children. So she was too gentle to develop the same killing intent Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs did.

Kissy Missy opening the gate for the player can be interpreted as being a part of the caretaking nature she was created to have. She saw somebody struggling to complete a task and was kind enough to assist them, just like any good guardian would for the children they're responsible for.

She even looks back at the player after opening the gate, as if curious about them or concerned for their safety. Of course, this implies that Kissy Missy can’t tell the difference between a helpless child and what is presumed to be a full-grown adult, which can serve as a potential conflict in Chapter 3.

PJ Pug-A-Pillar was the "monster" that Marcas Brickley saw and reported to Leith Pierre.

Marcas describes what he saw as "50 feet long and with a thousand legs". PJ is very long and due to being based on a caterpillar, he has a lot of legs too. Jacksepticeye himself, Marcas' actor, even speculates that PJ was what Marcas saw.

Experiment 1006 is an amalgamation.

Mommy Long Legs' final words include "You'll make me part of him!", implying this.

• Confirmed going by how he seems to have human bones a part of his anatomy.
  • The tapes say that he is intelligent enough to tinker with mechanical devices and even invent some on his own. The skeletal hand that grabs what's left of Mommy could imply that his original body has fallen apart and he is scavenging pieces of other toys to make himself a new one.
  • As an addition to the above. Experiment 1006 started as just an inventing machine capable of designing new toys, but the ability to design and modify led it to modify itself.

Experiment 1006 will be the final boss.

If a sadistic killer like Mommy Long Legs is terrified of this thing then it must be worse.

Elliot Ludwig began the experiments because he lost his child.

It's mentioned in Chapter 2 that Elliot Ludwig was both divorced and had experienced a loss within his family before the start of the company in the 1960s. It could be that the experiments with poppy extract and reviving the dead had something to do with the tragic circumstances that occurred before the company's conception.

The Prototype will communicate with the player.

They are stated to have higher intelligence than any other toy so he may try and directly talk to the player. They may even try to trick the player into helping them.

Daisy will be the main boss for chapter 3.

The sunflower figurine thing must have some purpose.

• Jossed.

The player is a toy/non-human as well.

• There's already an entry for Ambiguously Human for the player, so it's not surprising if it's true.
• Bonus point if the player is related to 1006.
  • There's a text that told the player to get up every game over screen. If it's not Poppy herself (which I doubt) maybe it's 1006 using the player as puppet/pawn
  • Bonus: You know how in merchandise and official content they're portrayed by the faceless yellow dummy from the training videos? That's what they look like.
• The player can run for long periods without needing to stop for breaks and can fall from great heights without sustaining injury. Not something an ordinary factory worker should be able to do.
• Speaking toys saying they recognize the player as a previous worker does not discredit this guess, as it's shown canon in the RESTRICTED_restoration.mp4 that the others can recognize a toy made from a worker and will want to go on the attack.

The Poppy Playtime doll was discontinued at some point before the factory closed, but for completely mundane reasons.

Maybe people got concerned that the "she can hold a conversation with your child" feature meant that some unsavory individuals could take advantage of it (a la My Friend Cayla or Furby), Moral Guardians raised a stink and the doll was subsequently canned.

Kissy Missy will appear in chapter 3...

...and die, because No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. She helped us, no strings attached, unlike Poppy. So she must die eventually in the future chapter.

• Bonus point if she dies Taking the Bullet for the player.
• Ambiguous. Kissy Missy appears in Chapter 3, but towards the end the Cliffhanger implies something terrible happened to her.

Experiment 1006 was partially responsible for the creation of Mommy Long Legs.

• It implied in a log that Mommy Long Legs used to be a woman named Marie Payne. How she became Mommy isn't explained, but it might have something to do with the Prototype, Experiment 1006. In the video logs, Marie was likely the security specialist killed by Experiment 1006 after his failed escape attempt and was subsequently reborn as Mommy Long Legs. This may explain why she is hostile toward the staff, due to being left for dead and later being experimented on, and partially why she is terrified of Experiment 1006.
  • A loading screen from Project: Playtime seems to confirm this.
  • Jossed. Marie Payne was a child in PlayCare.

Mommy has poor eyesight when aggressive.

Twice in her chases, you find a safe spot that she overlooks for the more obvious path. Even if she's right behind you, she'll ignore the path you took and instead go through the more open path. The only time she follows you directly is when there's only one path that you could feasibly go.

• Possibly confirmed but in a different way. She's so enraged that she doesn't pay attention and dilated pupils can warp the vision.

The Player is Experiment 1006.

Admittedly, this one's a bit of a stretch, but there are a lot of implications in the game that the player and 1006 share a connection of sorts. The game over-messages mention 1006 a lot and some of the phrases even sound like they'd be spoken by scientists who were talking about 1006 or even directly to him. There's already a theory that the player isn't human. They don't seem to take damage from falling from great heights, for example. Whenever 1006 is mentioned it's also emphasized that he's incredibly intelligent and resourceful. The player proves themselves as a smart and cunning individual over and over again, solving various puzzles throughout the game, even ones that are purposely rigged against them, and defeating toys like Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs through thinking on their feet and using the environment to their advantage. Both the player and 1006 are spoken of in almost reverent tones for their abilities by third parties, with an unknown entity repeatedly describing 1006 as "wonderful" and Poppy saying that the player is "perfect" at the end of chapter 2. Both of them are seen as savior figures as well. 1006 had someone, most likely other living toys, who believed he would "free" them, Poppy is convinced that with how "perfect" the player has proven to be she'll be able to Set Right What Once Went Wrong in the factory.

• Jossed.

Plus, up until now it's not stated that the strange thing whose metal hand we keep seeing actually is 1006. Yes, its hand appears in the tapes talking about 1006, but the tapes tend to show things that are somehow related to whoever they're discussing, not necessarily the subject themselves. For example, Rich's second tape has him represented by a rejected toy, symbolizing his Butt-Monkey status in the company. Mommy also doesn't say it'll be 1006 who'll make her "part of him". Last but not least, it's a bit sus that 1006 remains the only experiment we still don't know the name of.

Marcas Brickley was turned into a toy.

Marcas's interview tape is labeled with a note that makes it sound like he possibly became a liability, and thus a danger to Playtime Co.'s research...

• Or they made him "shut-up" in a different way.

Candy Cat is going to make a major appearance in Chapter 3...

...and she's possessed by Makayla Hyssop.

• Jossed. Candy Cat does not appear in Chapter 3.

Cat-Bee is the only good toy

She was the only Playtime creation who managed to get the Player Character to safety years ago. Now dismayed they've returned, and try to fight their programming, urging them to escape, before being forced to get back on the script. As Poppy and Kissy Missy are Ambiguously Evil, this means she is your only ally.

The non-hostile toys are made from willing test subjects

The reason why Kissy Missy and Poppy aren't directly hostile towards the player is that they aren't unwilling participants in experimentation. They knew what they were getting into, so they aren't so bloodthirsty as to try and kill the player.

Why Mommy Long Legs kills Bunzo and the mini-Huggies

It's not just because they failed to kill the protagonist during Chapter 2. Their various games were the barometer that the higher-ups at Playtime Co used to decide who would or wouldn't be one of their child test subjects. She sees them as responsible for what happened to her children as much as the protagonist was just for working there. They had finally outlived their usefulness to her and thus she took revenge.

Bron the Dinosaur might be the antagonist of Chapter 3

Sure, this theory might be a little confusing since Bron doesn't have really much part in the game yet, but seeing his head in the Chapter 3 trailer could possibly be hinting that the third antagonist we'll encounter in the game could actually be him.

• More evidence supporting this is that the gas mask in the trailer shares the same color scheme as Bron. This also gives the theory of him being the antagonist in the chapter a lot of validity. Clearly, Chapter 3 is going to be a whole lot darker than the previous two. While Chapters One and Two were a bit creepy, being chased by two characters named Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs is honestly kind of comical, but it seems like things are about to get serious for once.
• Bron did say he was the scariest dinosaur. He never did say why.
• Jossed. Bron is not the antagonist of Chapter 3 and does not appear.

The player character is a villain protagonist.

The reason we venture deeper into an obviously dangerous facility isn't out of genre blindness, but perhaps we needed to destroy evidence of our complicity in the company's crimes after receiving the letter told us there could be witnesses...

• Going by Mommy's dialogue, the Protagonist might be, though, if this is the case, the Protagonist could also be The Atoner, someone coming back to set right from wrong.

Daddy Long Legs will appear in a future chapter

Either as a Good Counterpart to Mommy Long Legs (like how Kissy Missy might to Huggy Wuggy), or as a Crusading Widow, trying to kill the player to avenge is wife.

Bron will be a Disc-One Final Boss in chapter 3, and be The Unfought of the entire series

This theory relates to a video made by Game Theory, that suggests that Bron be being deliberately set up as a Red Herring for the antagonist of Chapter 3.

My guess is that the level will play out similar to the previous 2 chapters, with the main area being Brons area, with Bron being the one the player interacts with. However, the moment Bron turns dangerous, and it looks like he's going to chase the player, another villain (one we haven't seen before) will appear from nowhere, kill Bron and try to kill the player themselves.

• Jossed. Bron does not appear in Chapter 3, only in posters and the like. The main area is PlayCare.

We'll encounter Elliot Ludwig, somehow still alive and in the factory, in Chapter 3

When we do, he'll act Affably Evil by offering us comfort before giving us an exclamation that all of the horrible things he's been doing have been done to serve a greater purpose (may or may not contain copious amounts of bullshit) before offering us a chance to take his place as the new head of Playtime.Co... before getting gutted by 1006 and leading to a chase/fight with it.

• Jossed. Ludwig does not appear in Chapter 3.

Why Boxy Boo wasn't on the Playtime Co. mural with the other toy mascots

Doylist reason it probably because it hadn't been thought up yet, or to avoid spoilers. But for some possible Watsonian reasons.

1) It's not a mascot, but part of another toy line, possibly Bron's. (like how Daddy Long Legs isn't a mascot, but part of Mommy's line)

2) It is a scrapped toy, like Daisy.

3) It's a toy that used to be in production, before being discontinued, many years before the mural was painted.

A bird toy might be the main antagonist of chapter 3

The Bunzo Bunny easter comic featured a bird egg that was accidentally destroyed by Bunzo. Bunzo's body in the closing panels has also showed signs of apparent eye tearing, and there were claw marks on the walls behind it. It could be that an unknown bird creature plucked his eyes with its beak and clawed at the walls behind him.

Furthermore, there were concept art for several unused bird themed enemies shown in the Chapter Two Anniversary video. Perhaps Mob Entertainment intends on using a bird toy for chapter 3's main villain.

A recent teaser poster showcases a bird claw crushing a Highly Wuggy Plush. Perhaps this theory could be true?

• Jossed. Catnap, a purple cat toy, is the main antagonist of Chapter 3. The teaser poster shows his paw.

The Chapter 3 antagonist may be a Dragon based toy

Based on its appearance in the second Chapter 3 teaser trailer, and how it breathes out smoke with it having sharp claws, the new toy is some kind off Dragon entity.

• Jossed. The third antagonist is Catnap, a purple cat plush.

The point to all of this

Turning human beings into toys through what might either be science or outright witchcraft. Why? Either whatever they're doing is incredibly cheap, or something far more complicated is at play. Potential explanations include but are not limited to

• Corporate greed taken to the extreme
• A desire for more "Lifelike" toys also taken to the extreme
• A front for bioweapons production
• An actual demonic ritual

CatNap was removed from the Smiling Critters lineup and the series was rebooted without him.

• It’s possible that the employee that was working on the Smiling Critters TV Series saw the dangerous effects that CatNap's Poppy scent had on all of the children who were testing it in comparison to all of other Smiling Critter's scents. When the higher ups refused to acknowledge his concerns, he decided to sabotage the release of CatNap by editing in a new terrifying ending to the first episode of the TV Series behind everyone's back that depicted the horrible and addictive effect that CatNap and his Poppy Gas REALLY had on everyone else and how dangerous of a toy he really was. Though the higher ups had quickly dealt with the offending employee in question, it was already too late and the damage was done. People all over the world were complaining about the animated TV Series that they had just watched and how it, and particularly CatNap, had completely and utterly traumatized all of their children that had been watching it, and though the higher ups tried to do some damage control by blaming the offending employee that was behind the new episodes ending in the first place, it quickly became apparent that CatNap wasn’t going to be winning over the public eye anytime soon, and the studio eventually announced that the lineup and TV Series would be receiving a complete, utter, and IMMEDIATE Reboot that would be taking CatNap out of the lineup and equation entirely. Eventually, after the incident had died down and the CatNap production line had been completely shut down, one of the CatNap Toys was relocated to the Playcare children's center to be able to act as a sleep inducer and a sedative for a couple of the terrified children that had been living there instead…

CatNap wrote the note that brought the player to the factory.

Something that's been noted prior to even Chapter 2 is the mistakes in the note that the player gets at the beginning of the game. Misspellings in words like "disappeared" or "we're." So far, the main theories behind it are that either Poppy or the Prototype wrote the note. However, rather obviously, Poppy's been in her case, and if her monologue to us at the end of Chapter 2 is any indication, she couldn't get out on her own. We know CatNap can write, we see his messages in the Chapter 3 trailer. Who's to say the Prototype didn't tell him what to write and send, especially if Poppy is important to his plans?

The Other Smiling Critters are also Human Beings turned into toys

There is a cult in the Playcare

With the entirety of Playtime co.'s staff disappearing in the factory, what happened to the children living in it? The answer is simple, the Prototype used them to make a cult worshipping itself, using CatNap to keep the children in line.

• One teaser makes mention of heretics
• A quote from Catnap on the Chapter 3 teaser trailer is "I LIVE TO SERVE OUR ANGEL OF SALVATION"
• The Smiling Critters cartoon has all of the critters begging for CatNap's poppy gas, despite how it is shown the poppy gas has terrible side effects, very cultlike behavior.
• The ARG teaser for chapter 3 reveals to us that the Prototype was willing to manipulate the children in the Playcare, before everything fell apart.
• The chapter 3 teaser trailer showed us children's drawings of CatNap, wouldn't the workers have taken down evidence of the giant toys?

My conclusion is the Smiling Critters themselves, chapter 3 will distort collectable toy lines by turning a fictional friend group into a devout cult.

When CatNap inevitably gets added to Project Playtime...

...the other Smiling Critters will appear as skins for him, much like how Kissy Missy, Daddy Long Legs, and Box She Boo are skins for Huggy Wuggy, Mommy Long Legs, and Boxy Boo, respectively.

• Micah is confirmed to said that CatNap will be added to Project Playtime at a later date alongside PJ!

CatNap getting rejected and removed is likely the cause of him being a villain

• Doesn't seem to be the case. He attacks and kills anyone who he considers a 'heretic' i.e. does not worship the Prototype.

Some of the Smiling Critters will turn up as Allies in Chapter 3.

...This is due to how the Teaser Trailer implies that not all the Smiling Critters work for Catnap or Experiment 1006, what with how Dogday was implied to have been marked as a 'Heretic' in the trailer, and in another Teaser, we see a Small version of Bobby Bearhug scurrying about on camera, with Catnap's data telling us the Smiling Critters we will see have 'Size Shifting' abilities.

Now, why would Bobby be running around on Camera in her tiny form? Well, two reasons, first being to make herself seem innocent and friendly (A Death Sentence if we consider the factory has been a hunting ground for decades, and having a small and friendly looking form is asking to be made a meal of), and the second is much simpler, that being a smaller form allows one to sneak around without being spotted.

Combined with the implication below that Craftycorn may have been at least one of those who wrote the Ominous Warnings all over the vent walls in Chapter one, and we may have a few extra allies in chapter 3... However long they will last.

• Somewhat confirmed. However, only DogDay appears and is non-hostile, stating that he is the last of the Bigger Body 'Smiling Critters' left aside from CatNap. Unfortunately this doesn't last long as he dies and is taken control of by the smaller Smiling Critter toys, which then chase the player.

Craftycorn, and quite possibly a few other Smiling Critters, were the ones to scribble down the Warnings leading to Poppy's containment.

Craftycorn was noted to not only be the artist of the Smiling Critters, but also kept art supplies on her person. She was also stated to "understand the importance of art, and sharing it with others", so it is possible she is the most literate of of the cast...

...As for why the implication of Craftycorn having help... Well, This is due to one easily missable inscription that says "I'm So hungry", followed by a "DON'T" right below it. Which of the smiling Critters keeps harping on about Food? Picky Piggy... The "Don't" likely came from Craftycorn being irritated at Picky Piggy wasting her limited art supplies to ramble on about her hunger.

Poppy is going to be Evil All Along and be a higher power than The Prototype she opposes.

• ...Okay, maybe not. The fact that she remained Ambiguously Evil and was found trapped in a case the first time she's introduced suggests there's more to her than there first appears. Also, this is a horror game, and the game is named after her; indie horror games usually don't apply Protagonist Title instead of Antagonist Title (case in point, Slender: The Eight Pages and Five Nights at Freddy's).
• Furthermore, there are many things about her that just don't seem to add up. She wants to kill the Prototype, but what then? How did she survive in a case all this time? Does she not need to eat like the others? How do we know she didn't have something to do with the 'Hour of Joy'? After all, we only have her word for it... There definitely seems to be more to this doll than meets the eye.
• Also the Prototype is a prototype of... what exactly? And also, if Poppy is in fact a living toy, then that means she's an experiment of Harley's... but who possesses her?
• Something else that's odd... Why does Poppy list the mascots that were killed up to Chapter 3 when CatNap is defeated, and acts like it's more to her benefit than it is the player? That's especially something that stands out. And the player didn't even kill CatNap directly, that was the work of the Prototype, but she acts like it was something we did?

Ollie is the Prototype.

What would a young child be doing in Playtime Co ten years after the factory closed? How would one survive? Furthermore, Ollie's voice sometimes sounds less like a child in distress and more like a child pretending to be in distress. He doesn't include himself as one of the orphans of the Playcare while describing it, he includes himself as joining Poppy, Kissy, and the player in using the path opened from diverting the red gas, yet never arrives, and he's shockingly knowledgable about the inner workings of the Playcare, even giving the player keys for the different locations in the facility. A VHS tape we find also reveals the Prototype possesses the ability to mimic voices.

• It also wouldn't be the first time in a mascot horror game that an antagonist uses the voice of a child to trick the player...
• The one counterpoint to this is that Poppy mentions Ollie in a way that implies he's an ally of hers; that doesn't rule out the possibility that the Prototype is speaking to you while mimicking the real Ollie though.

Samuel Lee was the child who got turned into Huggy Wuggy.

Huggy doesn't have an actual identity yet, but it could possibly be Samuel. He was one of the children who were chosen to go to the Game Station and go through a series of tests in order to see if they were fit for experimentation. In the tape "Samuel Lee's Last Day", we hear Samuel screaming when Miss Brooks announces that he's been chosen for adoption, indicating that he might have been aware of what was really happening to the orphans, and he was chosen to be experimented on next.

Richard is the protagonist.

Hear me out. This may seem an odd suggestion at first, but the more you look the more it seems to make sense. We have gotten quite a few tapes that include Richard, including a new one in Chapter 3 where it is suggested he could take over Stu's position (which may have been a high rank, hence why the antagonists seem to recognise him). More importantly, why would there be so much focus on this seemingly unimportant middle-ranking character? From a lore standpoint it wouldn't make sense lest he were more important than he first seems. It is possible he was also seen as a threat to the company's 'integrity' like Rowan, which is why they sent him down to the defunct toys section, and was not afraid to talk about its shortcomings.

Miss Delight questions how the player is still alive; judging from what we saw from the 'Hour of Joy' tape, every human was killed. The player, of course, was not, which suggests he wasn't in that day (further supported by the original opening where it is said the protagonist arrived the next day with police tape all around, clearly not knowing what happened). It wouldn't make much sense for a high-ranking lead to not be in the factory, but for an average employee as Rich was he could have taken a day off. Furthermore, if he were of a high-rank, wouldn't he know about all the details that Ollie explained? And, if Ollie IS the prototype, there is no way he would work with the player or even leave them alive if they had a part in the experiments, lest the prototype was using us. Poppy also mentions how he 'didn't do anything wrong', which could imply he was also a victim of the factory. After all, we know that he may be a grump, but he was a good person and cared about all the kids and didn't like how they were never allowed to go outside. In a way, he probably feels responsible for what happened, even for surviving when none of his co-workers did. He noticed how off the place off but didn't do anything about it, and now he wants to set things right.

Ollie is a Catbee.

As Catbee's poster's responses in Chapter 2 was one of the few that explicitly warned you to leave in a tone like someone trying to spare you trouble, Ollie is one of those kinds of toys.

The game takes place in 2005.

The reversed audio in Chapter 3 states that the player’s presence was demanded 10 years ago, which likely refers to them not having been present during the Hour of Joy, and logically, 2005 would be 10 years afterwards, since the Hour of Joy seemingly occurred in 1995.

The Protagonist is none other than Stella Greyber.

Many of the tapes involving Stella as well as her prerecorded lines paint a picture of someone high up in the company that loves what they were doing, but was actually Locked Out of the Loop regarding the dark experiments that the other top executives like Leith Pierre and Harley Sawyer were doing in secret since even she didn't know what happened to one of the kids who was in "testing". There are also a few hints that the protagonist is actually a female such as their breathing sounding more feminine when using the gas mask. Many of the hallucinations the protagonist experience in Chapter 3 implies that they feel guilty of what was happening at the company, but couldn't do anything about it just like Stella which might be why she eventually left the day before "The Hour of Joy" incident that happened on August 8th, 1995 and saved her life at the cost of the rest of the company.

The final chapter of Poppy Playtime will take place in the main laboratory.

As The Player and Poppy Playtime descend deeper underground near the end of Chapter 3, A future chapter will likely showcase the laboratory where all the experiments were created. Inside this laboratory, the Player would be able to explore various sub-sections in more industrial-based environments similar to those seen in Dead Space. This new area would also reveal the final secrets about Playtime Co. and the origins of the Prototype. Poppy also remarks that CatNap was the final obstacle the Prototype used against the Player. This means that the Player will finally face off against the Prototype as the final boss of Poppy Playtime.

A future chapter will take place in an amusement park in the factory.

Idea taken from this Reddit post.

The orphans in the Playcare are actually alive and living with the Prototype.

This comes from a few things. First, for all the implications that the orphans were caught up in the Hour of Joy like the Playtime employees, one thing that can't be ignored is in the Miss Delight audio log, she says that CatNap told her the orphans were safe. Granted, that was ten years prior, but considering CatNap himself was once an orphan and it's implied in documents that he did care about the orphans in Playcare. He'd want to stop the experiments. We know the Prototype wants to stop the experiments. Who's to say CatNap didn't gas the Playcare with Red Smoke, then killed the employees and took the children down to the Prototype's lair. Who knows, maybe some of them joined the Prototype cult and we have to fight them?

Cartoon-verse CatNap is mute

More just a headcannon than a theory, but this is mainly from how his only "dialogue" is from his cutout, and even then it's only gasps. (Yes I know the cutouts are somewhat "corrupted" and that BiggerBodies!CatNap speaks in a tape, but that was probably Theodore talking and not CatNap.)

The Cartoon-verse Smiling Critters suffer from some sort of trauma/abusive childhood

Because what would an innocent kids show (at least what was supposedly supposed to be one in-universe) be without some manor of dark fan theory?

• DogDay: Probably got off the easiest, as shown with his though his bright personality in the cutout, but his leadership tendencies may come from growing up with a neglectful family.
• CatNap: Not much we can get out of them, but since his profile says that he makes sure his friends get the right amount of sleep, perhaps he suffers from some form of insomnia?
• Hoppy Hopscotch: Grew up in a restrictive household/school, which led to her being overly active when she was given her well-deserved freedom.
• PickyPiggy: Grew up starved/not having access to a lot of food, which would lead her trait of eating a lot (If the cutout is anything to go by).
• KickinChicken: Grew up neglected (Similar to DogDay), but chose to cope with this by acting out and trying to get as much attention to him as possible, both good and bad.
• Bobby Bearhug: Likely grew up without getting a lot of love, possibly with Abusive Parents and/or fake friends who pretended to like her only to torment her.
• CraftyCorn: Was mentally tormented by her parents who either wanted their daughter to be "perfect" in her art endeavors, or tore her down at every opportunity because they didn't like the path she was on.
• Bubba Bubbaphant: Possibly similar to Crafty, or that he made a dumb decision in his youth that had disastrous consequences and vowed to get smarter so a similar incident would never occur again, an elephant never forgets, after all.

The arm was all there was to the Prototype

• All there was at first at least

Ollie is a Bron

• Bron keeps showing up in trailers, but never plays a major part in any chapters. He could be a hint at Ollie, especially if the theory that Ollie is the one guiding us by opening and closing doors in previous chapters is true.

The next update to Project: Playtime will have an amusement park as a map.

• Most of the posters in and around the Playcare have some relevance to the game or its lore, except for one poster advertising a Poppy-themed amusement park. A lot of people started theorizing that this would be the setting of Chapter 4, but that makes little sense. The player ends Chapter 3 going deeper down under the already-deep-underground Playcare. What would an amusement park be doing under all of that? My theory is that this is going to be a hint to a new map for the next update to Project: Playtime, having an amusement park arena. It would make more sense than being a setting for Chapter 4, and it also serves as a neat inversion to a poster found in the first update to Project: Playtime, which hinted at Chapter 3, with the introduction of the Smiling Critters.

The Prototype isn't the villain

• The Prototype seems to be built up as the final boss and villain of the game, but its actions don't always reflect that. While the Prototype is confirmed to have killed at least one security guard while in containment, its own description of its treatment at the hands of Doctor Harley Sawyer and other scientists paints a horrible picture of what it was trying to escape from. When Theodore Grambell was badly electrocuted while helping the Prototype escape, rather than take the escape opportunity, the Prototype returned Theodore to the Playcare for medical attention, sacrificing the escape attempt. The Hour of Joy, as horrible as it was, freed the toys from the scientists. The survivors in Project: Playtime are attacked because the prototype orders the Bigger Bodies to prevent them from creating more giant toys. It seems that at least some of the orphans were spared from the Hour of Joy and have yet not been found. In addition, what threat would Poppy have posed to the Prototype alone? Why was she locked in the case?

Poppy was Elliot Ludwig's daughter or granddaughter

We never find out what his family tragedy was, and we know he experimented with reviving the dead using poppies before, it would make sense that if he'd lost a daughter, he would resurrect her and name her after the same flower. It's also possible that the Poppy dolls that were sold didn't contain consciousnesses of real children, but were only based off the personality of the original Poppy we meet in the game. Also, assuming Dr. Sawyer betrayed Ludwig to take over the company, it could also have been because Sawyer saw money and potential in the experiments and wanted to take them further, but Ludwig was satisfied with only reviving his daughter and wanted to end them after that.

Ollie is connected to Elliot Ludwig

Admittedly, these ideas are mostly based off the fact that "Elliot" and "Ollie" have all the same letters except for one T.

• Ollie was Elliot Ludwig's son or grandson, loosely named after Elliot and his ex-wife Molly, and his death was the family tragedy that was mentioned in the tape.
• Ollie is Elliot Ludwig himself, somehow resurrected into a younger form.

Neither of these ideas necessarily rules out the idea that Ollie is the Prototype, or even the idea that Poppy was Elliot Ludwig's daughter or granddaughter, although that would make the antagonism between them look a lot different.

Despite Poppy's claims, Huggy Wuggy is not dead yet

Whilst Chapter 3 seemingly has Poppy confirm Huggy's demise, one has to ask: How does Poppy know Huggy is dead? Simple. The player told her off-scream, likely after we opened her case at the end of Chapter 1, but before we start chapter 2.

Of course, following this logic, Huggy's death scene is Chapter 1 is how we "know" he's dead, but even then, it's still considered Uncertain Doom. Also, it's possible that the Nightmare Huggy is foreshadowing Huggy's return.

Although, if Huggy does appear again, he will almost certainly be Back for the Dead.

The protagonist is Leith Pierre.

This troper's seen some people bring it up, as well as counters given. The biggest thing Leith has is that he survived the Hour of Joy. The biggest counter is that the protagonist's motives are too noble line up with Leith's jerkish demeanor. But are they really? The only indication of the protagonist's motives are what the other characters (like Poppy) assume. All we know for sure is that they made the decision upon reading the note to return to the factory. When they got the note, saying, "We're still here", did they jump at the call to try and save some lives they previously thought were lost...or was Leith, upon realizing traces of his past misdeeds remained, trying to cover them up? Poppy vouches for us, but does she really know the player hasn't done anything wrong? Would she even recognize Leith? Or is she just pacifying Kissy?When Chapter 3 we get some indication of the player having any kind of guilt...well, by then Leith would've been knocked down several pegs, so maybe by his conscience is coming through to them.And these lines almost seem to be calling the player out. They could just be exaggerating, but they could be calling out Leith's attitude:

This isn't about you.

Don't be selfish.

More lives are at risk than just yours.

• So in conclusion, Leith gets a note that prompts to go back and figure out what's happening (and how to cover it up). Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 happen, during which he undergoes a massive Break the Haughty enough to have the nightmare in Chapter 3.

The Prototype an antagonist, but not the villain, but Poppy isn't the bad guy either.

Rather, they're both victims of Playtime Co turned against eachother by circumstance. The Prototype was created in a lab. The only exposure to adult humans would be the cruel Harley Sawyer and people working for him. It's easy to see why it would come to believe that all adult Humans Are the Real Monsters. Poppy, by comparison, lived life has a normal human and was given an area to herself in the building. She had more exposure to humans and a chance to see more human kindness at play. The Hour of Joy took both guilty and innocent lives, but the prototype couldn't see it that way. In fact, it did spare the ones who it believed were the only innocent ones - the orphans. But Poppy understood that there would've been people who weren't affiliated with the factory taking a tour, or workers like Rowan Stoll who worked for the factory but were clueless of the atrocities. The Prototype wouldn't have understood why she was appalled by the deaths of people it saw as "guilty" and imprisoned her. Meanwhile, Poppy was traumatized by the bloodbath the prototype caused. The Prototype wasn't just angry at its treatment - it had only been given examples of these people hurting it and others, and wanted justice and freedom. Maybe they tried to reason with eachother, but either way they didn't. The Prototype understands empathy, better then some of the human characters and asking them if they "feel" while hurting and experimenting on the toys. I daresay Poppy and the prototype have more in common then they realize. Poppy believes that compassion is the correct choice, even if others would call her foolish for doing so. The Prototype showed Theodore compassion and sacrificed its freedom to get him help. Both make somewhat ruthless decisions to further their goal.

Ollie is the phone