Tye Sheridan wins lead role in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’

Tye Sheridan has been cast as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One for DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.

Sheridan will star as Wade Watts, a young orphan who competes for a billion-dollar prize in the Oasis, a virtual-reality universe. The casting was first reported by Deadline and later by Variety.

Olivia Cooke (Me & Earl & The Dying Girl) and Ben Mendelsohn co-star. Zak Penn wrote the screenplay.

Warner Bros. was originally looking to release the film in December 2017, but had to change its plans when Disney moved Star Wars: Episode VIII to the same date. The film was rescheduled for March 30, 2018.

Sheridan shot to fame with a role in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life and later starred in Jeff Nichols’ Mud with Matthew McConaughey. He is also starring as Cyclops in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. He also starred in the quickly-forgotten Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse.