Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton To Narrate Ready Player Two Audiobook

Set to arrive in print this November, Earnest Cline’s Ready Player One sequel novel will have a major geek representative reading it for the audio edition. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Star Trek: The Next Generation star, and all around nerd icon, Wil Wheaton, will provide the reading for Ready Player Two. This is in keeping with tradition for Wheaton and Cline’s works, having previously read the audiobook for both Ready Player One and Cline’s other novel Armada. Wheaton had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the feature film adaptation of Ready Player One, appearing on a campaign poster within the OASIS (the actor is given a shout out in the original novel, having been elected as “VP of the OASIS User Council” for multiple terms).

Ready Player Two will be available for purchase on November 24th, nine years after the release of the first book. While Ready Player One has been popular since its initial debut in 2011, the 2018 feature film adaptation from Steven Spielberg helped skyrocket its notoriety. Official details on its plot have not been confirmed, but the book will be a direct sequel to Cline’s original novel without taking into account the changes in the story from Spielberg’s film.

“I had to start writing the sequel last year while the movie was being finished just to stay ahead of the curve,” Cline said in another interview with THR ahead of the movie’s 2018 debut, explaining that the release of the film actually pushed him to work faster on the second book. “It’s a good problem to have, but if this movie does well, the following week they’ll decide whether or not they want to make Ready Player Two, and it occurred to me I should finish.”

Cline went on to explain that he had always planned on writing more books on the series, even before the movie’s success, adding: “I’d always intended to write more in the series, but I never imagined the movie would get done before I finished writing them. So, I had to kick it into high gear.”

For those that don’t recall how the first novel ended, Wade Watts a.k.a. Parzival found himself the sole controller of the OASIS (the virtual playground at the heart of the novel) and essentially king of the digital sphere of the world. On the real-world side of things however he finally meets his in-game partner and love interest Art3mis in person and shares a kiss with her. From there it seems likely the sequel will focus on their relationship as a couple, and perhaps what has become of the OASIS under his leadership.