Ernest Cline’s sequel to his blockbuster novel Ready Player One—unimaginatively titled Ready Player Two—finally has a release date: November 24th, 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Penguin Random House hasn’t revealed a plot for the novel, but presumably, it’ll pick up the adventures of Wade, Aech, and Art3mis now that they’re in charge of the OASIS, and will come with plenty of nerd references.
Cline published Ready Player One in 2011, which followed a teenager named Wade Watts who lived in a dystopian future where the entire world is plugged into a global virtual reality system called OASIS. When the founder of the system dies, he kicks off a global easter egg hunt to find his successor to run the system. Wade, along with a group of friends, Aech and Art3mis, work to solve the late founder’s puzzles to take control of OASIS before a malevolent company called Innovative Online Industries (IOI) does.
The book was a huge hit when it was published, and was praised for its references to all things geek culture and 1980s video gaming. But the book has earned its share of criticism for gatekeeping, over-reliance on nerd references, depictions of women and race, and weak characters.
Despite that, the book gained a film adaptation by none other than Steven Spielberg, which came out in 2018.
Cline revealed that he was working on a sequel in 2018 during a Facebook Live event for the movie, noting at the time that “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.”
The book is the latest from Cline, who published another reference-ladened novel, Armada, in 2015. Ready Player Two will hit stores on November 24th (right in time for the holiday shopping season), and doubtlessly, it’ll be snapped up for a movie adaptation before too much longer.
