Ernest Cline is Writing a READY PLAYER ONE Sequel
It looks like we’re all headed back to the OASIS! (eventually)
Yesterday, Ernest Cline did a livestream Q&A at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in conjunction with the release of the first full-length trailer for Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. The Ready Player One book released in 2011 and Cline describes it as “if Willy Wonka were a video game designer instead of a candy maker and held his golden ticket contest inside the world’s greatest video game.” The concept, combined with the packed-to-the-max video game and pop culture references, has made the book a cultural phenomenon.
Twenty-seven minutes into the livestream, the interviewer asked the question everyone’s been wondering for a while:
“Are you writing a sequel? Is this true?”
Cline responded, “It is true,” to enthusiastic applause.
We don’t have any more details, though. “I can’t talk about it too much, but there’s no better inspiration for a writer [than] to return to a world they’ve already worked on when they’re watching Steven Spielberg bring that world to life.” He went on to say that Spielberg had offered input, allowing Cline to “bounce ideas” off of him.
In 2015, rumors went flying about a sequel, but Cline cleared that up in an interview with Unbound Worlds, saying, “I wrote outlines for two potential sequels to Ready Player One, shortly after I finished my hardcover tour. But I haven’t actually starting writing either sequel yet. Someone misquoted Zak Penn in an interview and announced that I was already writing Ready Player Two without checking with me. This is why you can’t trust anything you read on the Internet, kids. Including this.”
Cline released Armada in July 2015, which is another sci-fi novel with gaming and 80s references, but not related to Ready Player One.
No news on a release date yet. In the livestream, Cline said it had taken him six or seven years to write the first book, so hopefully he gets through the sequel a bit more quickly.
