The book-to-film adaptation of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline will star Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts AKA Parzival.
Tye Sheridan is best known (though still not very well known) for roles in 2012’s Mud and 2015’s The Standford Prison Experiment. Later this year he’ll appear in Bryan Singer’s X-Men Apocalypse as Cyclops.
According to THR, the search for Wade Watts took Spielberg a long time — even leading the director to launch an online casting call — but Sheridan ended up edging out everyone he saw.
The casting process was so unusual that the co-stars were selected before the lead. Olivia Cooke (pictured below) is already on board Ready Player One to play Samantha Evelyn Cook AKA Art3mis, and Ben Mendesohn is set to play IOI head Sorrento.
As readers of Ernest Cline’s beloved science fiction novel know, Ready Player One follows Parzival and Art3mis as they try to compete in the virtual world of the OASIS to uncover a hidden Easter egg that promises them a huge fortune. The book is peppered with pop culture references including lots of video games, which is part of the reason why the book has been such a hit with readers. It’s a really fun read!
Ready Player One will be directed by Steven Spielberg and is scheduled to hit theaters March 30, 2018. The movie was previously slated to open on December 17, 2017 until Star Wars: Episode VIII decided to move in on that date.