The latest TV trailer for Ready Player One adds a Clark Kent/Superman Easter egg to the film’s long list of references. Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One has been a pop culture sensation since it debuted in 2011 thanks in large part to its own obsession with film, TV, video games, and comics. In a future where people spend more time in virtual reality than the real world, the book’s protagonist immerses himself in the entertainment and trappings of days gone by. There were a lot of Easter eggs in the Ready Player One trailer that dropped in December, and the marketing for the film has continued that tactic since.
In the time since the first big trailer dropped, we’ve seen all sorts of TV spots and posters paying homage to culture from the ’80s through today. Everything from Jurassic Park references to a Back to the Future nod have been used to spotlight what Warner Bros. hopes will be their next big project. But all that focus on name drops and allusions has led to Ready Player One being marketed all wrong, as not enough attention has been paid to the story and characters. Now, the latest TV preview blends a little bit of both approaches.
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Warner Bros. has released a new minute-long TV trailer for Ready Player One that puts the focus more on Tye Sheridan’s Wade Watts and what his life is like both in and out of the virtual OASIS. Of course, even with its focus on character, the spot still manages to sneak in yet another reference: this time to Clark Kent and John Williams’ theme from Superman.
Like the LEGO movie series, Ready Player One isn’t afraid to mine Warner Bros.’ long list of IPs for cameos, Easter eggs, and references. And while all of that is fun – and certainly true to the source material – it may not be enough to entice audiences. We’ve seen nostalgia transformed into cinema before, and it doesn’t always work. For every Wreck-It Ralph there’s a Pixels. But if some of the energy of The LEGO Movie can be channeled into Ready Player One, it could prove a potent mixture of pop culture love and sci-fi fun.
For Warner Bros., the potential failure of the film is what makes it such a gamble. Ready Player One is outspending on TV ads, as this latest look at the movie is one of many we’ve gotten in recent months trying to excite potential audiences. But with so many of the properties and characters referenced in Ready Player One actually getting their own films this year and in the near future, will a hodgepodge of them succeed at the box office? The book’s fanbase and the involvement of Steven Spielberg will buy Ready Player One more goodwill though – and we’ll know in just a few weeks whether the adaption is a success or not.
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Source: Warner Bros. [via Film Trailer Zone]
- Ready Player One release date: Mar 29, 2018
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