Don't feed the trolls: T.J. Miller to play internet instigator in Ready Player One

By Adam Poltrack June 2, 2016

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Whether he’s slapping around adolescent adderall dealers or making old jokes for five consecutive minutes, T.J. Miller spends most of his screen time on HBO’s Silicon Valley behaving badly. That said, his newest gig shouldn’t prove all that challenging.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor will play an “internet troll” named i-R0k in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One, which tells the story of a video game console creator who uses a virtual contest to determine who will inherit his billion-dollar fortune. The story is an adaptation of a sci-fi novel of the same name by Ernest Cline, and the film is set to begin filming by the end of June.

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While we’re sure that Miller is a great guy off-screen, we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge just how perfect this casting choice feels. Perhaps no actor in Hollywood is better suited to this role than the man who brought Silicon Valley’s insufferable entrepreneur Erlich Bachman to life, and — though we’re already cringing — we can’t wait to see him needling the rest of the cast.

Miller’s comedy is all about toeing that oh-so-thin line between “so irritating that it’s hilarious” and “so irritating that it’s not even funny.” It’s a line that most internet trolls are on the wrong side of, but we’d imagine that i-R0k will offer up enough laughs to make up for his provocations.

For the uninitiated, Ready Player One has spent years in development, and is a labor of love for Spielberg, who is himself an ardent gamer. Though less publicized than his film work, he has assisted in the development of several video games, including Boom Blox and the Medal of Honor series.

Ready Player One is scheduled for a March 30, 2018, release and stars Simon Pegg (Star Trek Beyond), Tye Sheridan (Mud), Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), and Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline).

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