Ready Player Two, WARNING: Spoilers follow.
The reviews for Ready Player Two are in. The movie is officially happening according to author Ernest Cline, despite the critical beating his latest novel has taken in its opening weeks.
The sequel book to 2011’s Ready Player One, the hugely popular book by Ernest Cline which spawned Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name, was released last week (November 24). Ready Player Two returns to Wade Watts just nine days after winning James Halliday’s hunt, taking over control of the OASIS, and becoming the richest and most powerful man in the world.
Cline had confirmed that he had plans for a sequel in 2015, and began writing in late 2017. The new novel has a different storyline with the characters, but still explores pop culture like the first book did.
In the events of the follow-up book, Wade also discovers that he’s inherited a new technology invented by Hallliday, the ONI headset, which allows Avatars to experience all their senses. Yes, it’s quite the tech.
Although Ready Player Two has been dubbed “draining” and “verging on self-parody” by critics, Cline has confirmed that it will be heading to Hollywood and a film is in “the early stages”.
He told Inverse: “I can tell from the experience of making the first movie that everybody had a lot of fun. We talked about the possibility of there being a Ready Player Two when we were making Ready Player One. In Hollywood you never know.
“I really tried my best to focus on just writing a sequel to my book. There are characters in the movie that are alive that aren’t alive in the book. I focused on trying to give fans the book without letting the film influence me. The movie will sort itself out later.”
As for how he deals with negative reviews from readers, the author admitted that he considers “criticism, and really vitriolic criticism” a “side effect of massive success”.
“I’m in the position that any writer would kill to be in, and have this big of an audience and to have a huge book come out,” he continued, diplomatically. “That’s a blessing.”
Adding that he’s grateful for people to be “consuming” his work, Cline said: “I remember Stephen King saying that all criticism is valid. If a book is hugely popular and people are reading it and putting it into their brain, it deserves to be criticised and analysed for its message.
“I feel blessed that this many people are paying attention. If they’re hating on my stuff, at least they’re consuming it and it’s taking them away from their lives, even if it’s to be embittered about how much others love it or hate it.”