Ready Player Two is Still Happening, But There’s a Catch
Get ready to return to the OASIS, whether you want to or not.
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline’s hit novel about an immersive VR world, burst onto the big screen under the watchful eye of filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg. The movie was a huge success, more than tripling its budget at the box office. That made it rather surprising that, more than four years after Cline announced a sequel was in early development, there’s still no sign of Ready Player Two.
Now, however, Spielberg finally has an update on the movie. It’s still in the works, but it will be very different from the first film in one key way.
After the Oscars, Spielberg spoke to Showbiz411 about his next project. “We’re in the discovery phase, trying to figure out what’s next,” he said. When asked about Ready Player Two specifically, he said he would only be producing it.
Ready Player One will get a sequel, but not from the same director.
So while the movie is still happening, it won’t be Spielberg’s next directing project. It’s too soon to speculate on who could fill Spielberg’s shoes, but while there’s no shortage of options, finding the right director is important. As a novel, Ready Player One had mixed reviews, but Spielberg brought his trademark sense of wonder to the story, and even non-fans could appreciate his sense of visual spectacle. As a book, Ready Player Two was not well received at all, which implies it will need a strong hand to tell a story worth seeing on the big screen.
Still, if you’re curious what Wade, Samantha, and the rest of the crew have been up to, all you have to do is crack open Ready Player Two. While there are some character differences, and much can change in adaptation, Cline co-wrote the screenplay for Ready Player One, and Spielberg offered Cline input on Ready Player Two, so the move from page to screen will likely be fairly faithful.
“We talked about the possibility of there being a Ready Player Two when we were making Ready Player One,” Ernest Cline told Inverse in 2020. “In Hollywood, you never know. I really tried my best to focus on just writing a sequel to my book.”
Ready Player Two will likely premiere at least seven years after the first one, but for a franchise so fixated on nostalgia, maybe that will work in its favor. No matter who’s behind the camera, let’s hope another treasure hunt in the OASIS will be worth the wait.
