Ready Player One novel is getting a sequel – and it's coming out this year

The follow-up – and yes, it's called Ready Player Two – will be released on 24th November 2020 by Penguin Random House UK.

Century will publish the Ready Player Two book in hardcover, eBook and audiobook in the UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada).

Ready Player One is set in a near-future dystopia where people escape the chaos of the real world for an expansive virtual universe, known as the Oasis, where they can create their own reality.

It follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune.

Featuring references to popular TV, movies and video games, the book spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and in 2018 was adapted for the big screen by director Steven Spielberg, with Cline co-writing the screenplay for the blockbuster (which grossed $583 million at the global box office.)

The film cast Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts and also starred Olivia Cooke and Simon Pegg.

Cline confirmed in 2017 that he was working on a sequel to his debut novel, telling Den of Geek, "The fun of the sequel for me would be exploring other facets of pop culture that I love and not just using the same ones over again. That's one of the reasons that I'm drawn to write more stories in this world.

"It was a lot of work creating the Oasis and the rules of the Oasis, but the Oasis was kind of the ultimate video game, and the ultimate entertainment platform, and that's a very fun landscape in which to tell stories."

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