Ready Player One Star Doubts They'd Return for a Sequel

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One adaptation notably experienced a prolonged development [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One adaptation notably experienced a prolonged development process, with it being eight years between the studio purchasing the rights to Ernest Cline's novel and the film actually landing in theaters, with such a long development process leading star Olivia Cooke to doubt that her character would return for the new film. What would potentially cause complications for Cooke is that the new novel takes place almost immediately after the conclusion of the last story, so if another decade were to pass before a movie made progress, the actress joked that she'd be too old for the project.

"I haven't read the new book yet," Cooke confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. "I don't think I'd be in the sequel just because if it goes directly after the first one, then I'll be bloody 40 by the time it comes out."

She added, "But yeah, I'm curious to read it."

Cooke's co-star in the film, Tye Sheridan, is more hopeful about getting to return to that world for a follow-up film.

"Recently, I've had people asking me questions about a Ready Player Two," Sheridan shared with ComicBook.com earlier this year. "'Is there going to be sequel?' And I think everybody's well aware that Ernie Cline is releasing a Ready Player Two, the novel. But people keep asking me and I would love to have an answer for you and I think people will and can speculate all they want, but I don't really know what the plan is yet. I have my fingers crossed and, of course, I think it's great and I loved working on that film, so yeah, I hope we get to do another."

In the sequel novel, "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 future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance. Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, run, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again."

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of Ready Player One on the big screen.

Would you like to see Cooke in the sequel? Let us know in the comments below!

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