Ready Player One delayed to 2018

Following in the footsteps of James Cameron's Avatar 2, Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One is bowing to the force of Disney's Star Wars.

The movie adaption of Ernest Cline's best-selling sci-fi fantasy novel was originally slated to hit theaters on December 15, 2017. However, in the wake of Disney's announcement that Star Wars: Episode VIII has been pushed back to that same exact date, Warner Bros. has delayed Ready Player One to March 30, 2018.

Insiders insist that the studio is not intimidated by the power of the force, but rather sees the spring window as a better fit for the film. While the Steven Spielberg-driected film would've likely commanded attention anyway, it will help that there's no real formidable challenge standing in its way to box office success. No major movies are scheduled to open in April 2018, and the new date coincides with Easter weekend. It will also avoid the 2018 Winter Olymps and beginning of the World Cup.

Ready Player One has become a cultural hit since its release in 2012. The story follows a young man, Wade Watts, on an adventurous treasure hunt in the virtual world, OASIS, with the winner promised a fortune left by the late creator of the virtual utopia. What really made the book a success, though, was the abundance of '80s video game, pop-culture, and sci-fi properties littered throughout the story.

Bates Motel star Olivia Cooke has been cast as Art3mis, one of the female leads, while the leading role of Wade Owen, aka Parzival, has not been filled yet.

The Walt Disney Company recently reported record quarterly earnings of $2.9 billion for its first fiscal quarter, driven largely by "the phenomenal success" of Star Wars.