Ready Player One: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

4. Parzival/Wade

Ready Player One
Warner Bros.

There's a lot riding on Tye Sheridan's young shoulders here, with his Wade/Parzival serving as our entry point into this new world and being the hero we have to root for. Luckily, while his character can be a tad annoying at times, he pretty much nails it: we're convinced of his real-life loneliness and get a clear understanding of why he's so invested in the OASIS, but he's equally believable as the cocksure Gunter-hero of the VR world.

There's a good balance between Wade and Parzival, who feel like different sides of the same coin rather than completely different people: the OASIS is more just a way for him to really express himself.

He nicely sells the self-doubt of his character and the way his viewpoint of the game and stakes change, while having great chemistry with Olivia Cooke's Samantha/Art3mis.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.