Ready Player Two finally levels up: Spielberg sequel gets its most hopeful update in years
There’s finally encouraging movement on the Ready Player One sequel, with its screenwriter sharing a proper progress update in a new interview.
If you've been waiting for literally any movement on Ready Player Two, you'll want to sit up for this: there's finally a proper update from someone actually involved. After ages of nothing but speculation and the occasional vague rumour, screenwriter Zak Penn has confirmed he's working on the script for the sequel to Spielberg's digital blockbuster.
In his own words to The Direct, Penn kept it simple: "I am working on it."
The original Ready Player One, which landed all the way back in March 2018, was Spielberg's big flashy take on Ernest Cline's nostalgia-drenched novel. Whether you thought it was a clever love letter to pop culture or just a migraine made of Easter eggs probably depends on your age and tolerance for relentless references, but the film smashed box office predictions anyway—pulling in more than $607 million globally on a budget of $175 million. Naturally, with that kind of haul and a built-in sequel novel from Cline, everyone assumed it wouldn't be long before Hollywood was plugging straight back into the OASIS.
The last significant update on the sequel was nearly two years ago when Spielberg himself told an industry event he wanted to produce next time around, rather than direct.
As for what we know now: Penn is locked in on scripting duties, and Spielberg is producing (not directing). That's about as much certainty as you'll get for the moment. There's been no casting news and nothing official about returning crew, but assuming the sequel sticks to the book, you can expect to see (or at least hear) the main original gang back—Wade Watts, Samantha Cook, Helen Harris, and Shoto. For a refresher, they were played by Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Lena Waithe, and Philip Zhao first time around.
The Premise This Time
So, what's Ready Player Two actually about? Still no official plot details, but here's the shape of things if the screenplay follows Cline's second book. After taking control of OASIS, Wade stumbles upon a new bit of kit hidden by Halliday himself that supposedly makes the OASIS "a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive" than before. Of course, with great power comes a fresh batch of world-ending threats and, inevitably, a new villain who's apparently even bigger than the last one. The stakes aren't just virtual reality bragging rights this time; the fate of humanity gets roped in for good measure.
- Original film: Ready Player One, Spielberg directed, 2018
- Worldwide box office: $607 million
- Sequel: Ready Player Two, Penn scripting, Spielberg producing
- No cast or crew locked in yet