TJ Miller basically plays Boba Fett in Ready Player One. Images: HBO, Lucasfilm

We still know very little about how Steven Spielberg is adapting Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One. We know the cast and that it’s coming out March 30, 2018, but that’s about it. However, now we know T.J. Miller is playing a role invented for the film, and that the character is a huge Star Wars fanatic.


“My character in the movie wants to be Boba Fett,” Miller told Fandango. “Like that’s his hero, his idol, which isn’t far off for many Star Wars fans, myself included.”

The Silicon Valley actor explained that this role is not in the book. He’s the only new character created for the film, and he fills an interesting in-between space between the heroes and villains.


“I play i-R0k and basically I am a funny, or at least mildly amusing, Boba Fett,” Miller said. “In the OASIS, I am a better player than Aech or Daito or any of those guys. I am sort of unequivocally the best bounty hunter, but I work freelance. While all the Sixers work for IOI and Sorrento, he has to commission me and I get an incredibly high fee to either find people and kill them or make them starve in the game.”

If you haven’t read the book and have no idea what he’s talking about, here’s a quick explanation of that quote. Ready Player One takes place in the OASIS, basically a virtual reality internet where anything is possible and people live out their fantasies as avatars. Aech and Daito are gunters, avatars in the OASIS who spend their time searching for the big Easter egg of OASIS, which is the main story. The gunters regularly clash with the Sixers, another group of players hired by a corporation (IOI) to find the big Easter egg for corporate gain. They’re lead by Sorrento, played in the movie by Ben Mendelsohn.

So Miller’s character, i-R0k, is likely hired by IOI to find and bring in the main character Parzival, played by Tye Sheridan, or Art3mis, played by Olivia Cooke. To make sure he gave off the properly geeky Boba Fett vibe, Miller said he mimicked Fett’s voice from the original Star Wars trilogy.

Fandango then asked Miller for any other info on the film, and all he would say is this:

Basically, it looks like a video game when not in the real world. And because it’s Steven Spielberg, it looks better than any video game on the market. Because of his access and resources, Gears of War and fucking Call of Duty can’t even touch it. I think they’re inventing new technology for it.


Ready Player One opens March 30, 2018.

[Fandango]