At the moment it’s hard to see where the film adaptation of Ready Player One could go wrong. Adapted from Ernest Cline’s acclaimed novel, directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring an all-star cast, the signs are looking pretty good. Yet somehow, things are looking up even more, thanks to the film’s latest addition, which comes in the form of TJ Miller.
In Ready Player One he will play iR0-k, a ‘griefer’ (basically that world’s equivalent of an online troll) who pops up every now and then to hurl abuse at the players and brag about his offline life (sound familiar? Clearly things never change in the future).
To be honest it’s hard to think of a better person for the role than Miller. Having starred so memorably in Deadpool, he’s also extremely popular for his role in Mike Judge’s TV series Silicon Valley, and has made memorable cameos in the likes of Big Hero 6 and Transformers: Age Of Extinction. The film needed a funnyman, and now it most definitely has one.
For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Ready Player One posits us in a future Earth where much of the population – including the young protagonist, Wade Watts – spends their waking hours jacked into a massive online server known as OASIS, where the players spend their time searching for clues in its 80s pop culture-infused environment. But when Wade (who goes by the moniker of ‘Parzival’ in the game) finds one of the clues, he immediately finds himself beset by rival players who are willing to kill to discover OASIS’s secrets – including the sinister suits of Innovative Online Industries, who are seeking to appropriate and regulate it for their own ends.
Miller joins a cast that already includes the likes of Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse), Olivia Cooke (Ouija), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Simon Pegg (Shaun Of The Dead) and Mark Rylance (The BFG).
Ready Player One will be released in cinemas on 30 March 2018. For more news about the biggest movies, pick up the new issue of SciFiNow.
