The geek pastiche of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One knows no bounds (beyond those of OASIS, the immersive MMORPG at the story’s center). Its dystopian treasure hunt pulls in allusions to Blade Runner, Rush, Dungeons And Dragons, and an arcade’s worth of vintage video games. Those allusions won’t include any Steven Spielberg films as long as Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg has any say in it, but according to T.J. Miller, movies made by Spielberg’s friends aren’t off limits.
In an interview with Fandango, the Silicon Valley star and party-crashing emoji discusses his Ready Player One role, which was created specifically for the movie. “Basically I am a funny, or at least mildly amusing, Boba Fett,” he says, a bounty hunter working within the OASIS at the behest of Ready Player One’s Darth Vader figure, Nolan Sorrento. Though there’s really no “basically” required: “My character in the movie wants to be Boba Fett. Like that’s his hero, his idol, which isn’t far off for many Star Wars fans, myself included.” Miller goes on to describe his preparations for the role, which, following the basic tenets of Fett worship, involves investing way too much in the bounty hunter’s few lines of spoken dialogue and a complete disregard for the prequel trilogy.