Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ moved to 2018 to avoid ‘Star Wars’

Warner Bros. announced a slate of new release dates Tuesday, including a delay for Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One.

The film, which is an adaptation of Ernest Cline’s best-selling novel, was originally scheduled for Dec. 15, 2017. However, the studio has rescheduled it for March 30, 2018, according to Box Office Mojo’s calendar.

The move was necessary to keep the film away from Star Wars: Episode VIII, which Disney rescheduled for Dec. 15, 2017. Warner Bros. saw how The Force Awakens took over the box office for over a month. Since Ready Player One would attract a very similar audience, there was no way the film could be released at the same time as Star Wars.

Ready Player One will star Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelsohn. It was written by Zak Penn and centers on Wade Watts, who competes with players willing to kill for a billion-dollar prize. It is set in 2044 and, while the book included references to Spielberg movies, the film will not.

Warner Bros. made three other moves. The DC Comics movie The Flash will open on March 16, 2018 instead of March 23, 2018. A Warner Bros. “event movie” will open on March 2, 2018 and a New Line “tentpole” will open on April 20, 2018.

Spielberg’s next film is The BFG, which opens on July 1. His latest, Bridge of Spies, was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.