Very rarely does a film or television show premiere and instantly become a classic among a specific group of people. Typically, movies and series need time to culminate with audiences and allow them to watch the content a few times through in order to catch every decisive little detail that ultimately makes the final product that much more satisfying. But there are always exceptions to every rule – one of which wasReady Player One, the sci-fi action-adventure film directed bySteven Spielberg.
Now, for a director as prolific and monumental as Spielberg, his resume has no shortage of incredible films and projects that he’s been a part of. Because of this reason,Ready Player Onecan often get lost among the other great movies that Spielberg has gifted to the world. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that the film became an immediate fan favorite among pop culture lovers, who believe that the film is regarded as some of Spielberg’s best work in recent decades.
In a world that is hell-bent on milking every last penny out of every piece of a medium that they can produce, it only makes sense thata sequel toReady Player Oneshould have been greenlit a long time ago – after all, the movie made over half a billion dollars. But, even if a sequel were to be announced finally, would it be in Spielberg’s best interest to helm the project?
Successful Video Game Projects
One reason why it might benefitSpielberg to do aReady Player Onesequel right now is that movies and TV shows based on video games are currently killing it on screen. Now, that’s not to say there still haven’t been some fumbles and flops (looking at you,Halo), but historically speaking, video game projects have never transferred over well to the small or big screen. That being said, progress has certainly been made, and it’s showing how creators are finally starting to unlock the secrets of turning video games into TV shows and movies. Projects likeArcane,Sonic the Hedgehog, andUnchartedhave all proven that.
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To clarify,Ready Player Oneisn’t based on a video game but instead a book. However, Spielberg changed a lot of the minor details of the book for the final product of the film (mainly which pop culture references he wanted to include). That and the film being set in a fictional video game-style world made it feel as if it was an adaptation of an actual video game itself – the largest video game in history.
Spielberg’s Sequel Flops
The first argument was why a sequel could work and be a good thing – this is the opposite. While Spielberg is known as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, even he hasn’t been able to escape the fate of having a few flops under his belt, definitely proving that you can never please everybody. Spielberg has made the majority of his success through his original films, such asJaws,Indiana Jones,E.T.,Schindler’s List,Saving Private Ryan,Jurassic Park, and the list goes on and on. Even with all of that success, it’s tended to be Spielberg’s sequels that end up being his flops.
The last two sequels that Spielberg directed wereIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal SkullandThe Lost World: Jurassic Park– both movies can make strong cases for the worst in their respective franchises. Despite Spielberg being the creator and innovator that brought these properties to life, it was by his hand that the sequels fell short of the mark that the original’s hit. That being said, if there is a franchise in Spielberg’s resume where a sequel could redeem his string of bad luck, it would beReady Player One.
The Book Has a Sequel
As we already stated, any project in Hollywood that makes money is usually bound to get a sequel of some sort. It’s just too tempting when audiences have made it clear that they like the material. However, sequels might not have always been planned from the start and can result in feeling clunky or misguided compared to the story that the original wove together. Fortunately,Ready Player One wouldn’t run into that problembecause a sequel has already been created.
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Earlier, we mentioned thatReady Player Onewas based on a book. Well, that book has a sequel,aptly namedReady Player Two. Now, even with this information for Spielberg to use, it’s possible that he strayed too far from the original narrative for the material in the second book to transfer over properly to a sequel on the big screen. But even so, it definitely couldn’t hurt a potential movie sequel to have a few hundred pages of written material already published to help put the story together.
