When is ready player 2 movie coming out

Ready Player Two spoilers follow.

A Ready Player Two movie is officially happening according to author Ernest Cline, despite the critical beating his latest novel has taken in its opening weeks.

The sequel to Ready Player One– which was successfully adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg –Ready Player Two returns to Wade Watts just nine days after winning James Halliday's hunt, taking over control of the OASIS, and becoming the richest and most powerful man in the world.

In the events of the follow-up book, Wade also discovers that he's inherited a new technology invented by Halliday – the ONI headset, which allows Avatars to experience all their senses. It's quite the tech.

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Related: Ready Player Two called "soulless" and "beyond parody" in brutal first reactions

Although Ready Player Two has been dubbed "draining" and "verging on self-parody" by critics, Cline has confirmed that it will be heading to Hollywood and a film is in "the early stages".

He told Inverse: "I can tell from the experience of making the first movie that everybody had a lot of fun. We talked about the possibility of there being a Ready Player Two when we were making Ready Player One. In Hollywood you never know.

"I really tried my best to focus on just writing a sequel to my book. There are characters in the movie that are alive that aren't alive in the book. I focused on trying to give fans the book without letting the film influence me. The movie will sort itself out later."

As for how he deals with negative reviews from readers, the author admitted that he considers "criticism, and really vitriolic criticism" a "side effect of massive success".

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Related: Ready Player One sequel: Cast, book, release date and everything you need to know

"I'm in the position that any writer would kill to be in, and have this big of an audience and to have a huge book come out," he continued, diplomatically. "That's a blessing."

Adding that he's grateful for people to be "consuming" his work, Cline said: "I remember Stephen King saying that all criticism is valid. If a book is hugely popular and people are reading it and putting it into their brain, it deserves to be criticised and analysed for its message.

"I feel blessed that this many people are paying attention. If they're hating on my stuff, at least they're consuming it and it's taking them away from their lives, even if it's to be embittered about how much others love it or hate it."

Ready Player One is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.

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If anyone could make Ernest Cline's hugely popular 2011 novel Ready Player One on the big screen, it was Steven Spielberg.

The blockbuster opened to critical acclaim and almost $600 million worldwide, so the only real surprise is that a follow-up hasn't already been confirmed by Warner Bros. However, don't get dismayed just yet as there's still time for a sequel to be greenlit.

If that happens, here's everything you need to know so far about a second trip into the OASIS.

Ready Player One 2 book: Has Ernest Cline written a sequel?

Why yes he has, although writing it while working on the movie adaptation proved to be tricky in one particular way.

"I wanted to make sure I had finished at least a rough draft of the sequel before I saw the movie because I didn't want the movie to influence me too. And I was very conscious of wanting to write a sequel to my novel that would please fans of the novel but also could serve as the basis for a fun movie," he told CinemaBlend.

Ready Player Two: Signed Edition (Hardback)

We'll soon find out whether he achieved his goal as details of his second novel were released, and the plot is as follows: "Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

"Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous – and addictive – than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest – a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.

And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance."

Ready Player One 2 cast: Who's coming back?

Olivia Cooke will definitely be back as Art3mis (AKA Samantha Cook) as she revealed to Digital Spy that she's signed up for a sequel. "I've signed my life away, so I'm contracted to sequels but I don't know [if they're happening]. I haven't heard anything. We'll see," she explained.

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So if Cooke is contracted for sequels, then we imagine the same would go for Tye Sheridan as Parzival (AKA Wade Watts) and potentially for the likes of Lena Waithe as Aech (AKA Helen Harris), Philip Zhao as Sho (AKA Zhou) and Win Morisaki as Daito (AKA Toshiro).

At the end of the first movie, the High Fivers were left in charge of the OASIS by its co-creator Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), so they'd all likely have to be back.

And even though he's dead, expect to see Mark Rylance back as the other co-creator James Halliday as Cline has said that the answer to what exactly Anorak (Halliday's avatar) is will form a part of the sequel.

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"Anorak, in the novel, is described as a ghost in the machine. A lot of Gunters think that he's somehow an AI copy of Halliday left to roam the Oasis, that he's left in charge of the contest. It's never really explored, but it's hinted at," he told Empire.

"When Steven and I were talking about that scene he asked me, what do you think Anorak is? I told him, and I told him how I thought that might play into the sequel, and I think that's why he included it in the movie. We're going to leave that a mystery and open-ended, but I will tell you that the sequel I've been working on, it flows right into that."

Whether Ben Mendelsohn or Hannah John-Kamen will be back as the villainous Nolan Sorrento and F'Nale Zandor, respectively, remains to be seen though as they were arrested for their misdeeds at the end of the movie.

Ready Player One 2 director: Would Steven Spielberg return?

It's not a guarantee that Spielberg will return for the sequel, although Cline told Collider that the director did give him some notes on the book sequel. "I told him what I had planned and bounced that idea off of him.

"When that was happening, he was still focused on this movie and he more wanted to know what I had planned, as it relates to the ending of this film, but what I have planned is set up very nicely, by the end of this movie," he outlined.

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But Cline noted that Spielberg also told him that the movie was the "third hardest" he's made, behind Jaws and Saving Private Ryan, and if he was to do the sequel, then we might have a wait a while for it.

"I don't know if he would want to dive right back in, but maybe in a couple years, he might have recovered enough. I really hope that, if we do make another one, that he would do it. Michael Crichton, the novelist, is the only one to get that lucky and have two of his books made into movies by Steven, but maybe I'll get lucky, too," he explained.

If we have to wait for Spielberg, we think that's a wait that'll be worth it.

Ready Player One 2 release date: When could we expect it?

Production began on the first movie in July 2016 and the movie was released in March 2018. Given that the second novel is out in November 2020, if production began soon after the earliest we could expect any sequel – even if it was to start filming right now – is 2022 and probably late 2022 at that.

Warner Bros.

As for now, all we can do is wait to see if Warner Bros announces the sequel and hopefully with that news will come a release date.

Ready Player One is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.

Digital Spy has launched its first-ever digital magazine with exclusive features, interviews, and videos. Access the latest edition with a 1-month free trial, only on Apple News+.

Interested in Digital Spy's weekly newsletter? Sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox – and don't forget to join our Watch This Facebook Group for daily TV recommendations and discussions with other readers.

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