After some major developments with ‘Ready Player One’ were revealed earlier this month, a new player has joined the game. Now that Warner Bros. and Steven Spielberg have announced that the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s acclaimed nostalgia-filled sci-fi adventure novel would be pushed back to 2018, it looks like they’ve selected the actor who will bring Parzival to life on the big screen.
According to Deadline, Tye Sheridan will star opposite Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelsohn in ‘Ready Player One’. Though his career has been relatively short, the young actor has appeared in a number of buzz-worthy projects such as Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’ and Jeff Nichols’ ‘Mud’, both of which earned much praise during their respective awards seasons. There was also ‘Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse’ and various other projects that let him work with the likes of Michael Cera, Ewan McGregor, and John Travolta, but the world at large will soon know him as the young Scott Summers/Cyclops after he makes an appearance in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’.
Sheridan will portray Wade Watts, a poor orphan from the stacks surrounding Oklahoma City that finds sanctuary in the digital world OASIS. He names his avatar Parzival after the Arthurian knight named Percival who is known for his quest to find the Holy Grail. But when his own quest for James Halliday’s Easter egg heats up, he gets the attention of the wrong people and his virtual life and real life start to collide in unimaginable ways.
With a production as high profile as ‘Ready Player One’, this is definitely a major milestone in young Sheridan’s career. And while I wouldn’t have considered him for the role at first, I could totally see him doing well with it. Naturally, we’ll have to wait and see how he really does, but for now, things are looking up for Spielberg and company.
What do you think about Tye Sheridan landing the lead role in ‘Ready Player One’? Do you think that he’s a good choice to play Wade Watts? Or would you have picked someone else? Sound off in the comments below.