Ready Player Two‘s author, Ernest Cline, has just confirmed that the film version is already in the early stages of development. Don’t count on seeing it anytime soon though.

Ernest Cline himself.
The author himself with some almost-breaking news.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Ernest Cline confirmed that work has already started on the film version of Ready Player Two. It’s apparently in the “early stages” right now. However, he also noted that Hollywood is suffering a bit from that little pandemic we’re all having. Specifically, here’s his exact words:

It’s in the early stages right now, especially since Hollywood is in limbo right now. But 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.

Player Two Will Not Be Ready For a While

Ready Player Two book cover.
Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time to finish this before the movie gets here.

All this means that we won’t be seeing any film version of Ready Player Two for a very, very long time. Although, to be fair, it took a while for Ready Player One to transition from written media to a visual one. Warner Bros. actually bought the film rights for the book in 2010: a year before it was even published. If we count that as the start of development that means that it took 8 years for Ready Player One to become a film.

Ready Player One movie poster.
Homages, homages everywhere!

Even if we use the same timeframe for Ready Player Two, that means that we’ll have to wait until 2028 before we see the film. And that’s assuming COVID-19 doesn’t muck things up like it has been doing this past year. I wouldn’t place bets on those odds.

Conclusion

Ernest Cline confirms that yes, work has just started on the film version of Ready Player Two. However, they’ve only just started. It’ll still be a while yet before we watch it on the big screen or at home. And that’s assuming that coronavirus doesn’t delay production even more. In the meantime, you can just sit back and enjoy the book so that you can eventually start comparing it to the movie when it comes out. Later. Much later.

Source: Inverse