Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is one of the most popular books of the last ten years. In March of 2018, it’s finally getting the big screen treatment, directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. As this book is essentially “80’s Nostalgia: The Movie,” Spielberg seems to be the perfect choice to usher in this adaptation of a future dominated by virtual reality.
The book centers around a future where humans spend their time plugged into a virtual reality world known as the OASIS. When the creator, James Donovan Holliday (Mark Rylance), dies, he leaves a video announcing a contest within his video game world where the winner will inherit his entire fortune. Teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is determined to unlock the Easter Eggs in order to win. The contest takes players through a gauntlet of pop culture references.
In a Comic-Con panel moderated by Chris Hardwick, Warner Brothers trotted out the man himself, Steven Spielberg, and author of Ready Player One, Ernest Cline, to present the first trailer.
The trailer provides a narration from Tye Sheridan’s main character, Wade Watts. We get a sense of the real world setting in the future before plugging into the OASIS, where the trailer completely transforms into video game mode as RUSH blasts over the speakers. The imagination of Ernest Cline’s packed novel exploded onto the screen, as we get a peek of many of the game’s Avatars, layered landscapes, and of course, many pop culture references, including the Iron Giant!
Check out the wild and nostalgia heavy first trailer for Ready Player One right here!
Ready Player One Opens in Theaters March 30th, 2018
Are you ready? #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/r1o8GMYE5O
— Ready Player One (@readyplayerone) July 22, 2017
