Steven Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi Ready Player One has added a new cast member – Win Morisaki, a Japanese singer and actor who successfully won the role after extensive auditions. Tye Sheridan (Mud), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Simon Pegg (Star Trek Beyond), T.J .Miller (Deadpool), Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) and Ben Mendelsohn (Exodus: Gods and Kings) are already on board.

Based on Ernest Cline’s best-selling YA novel set in a dystopian 2044, the story centers on teenager Wade Owen Watts (Sheridan) who plugs into a virtual reality game called Oasis. The game was created by a billionaire (Rylance) who, after his death, reveals that there are hidden riddles in the game which, if solved, can lead to his fortune. Watts races against competitors willing to kill in order to win the game and claim the prize. His love interest, Samantha Evelyn Cook (Cooke), is also a competitor in the virtual world. Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn) is a villainous executive for an internet corporation with ulterior designs for Oasis. Pegg will play Orgen Morrow, co-creator of Oasis. Morisaki will play the role of Daito, another player in the game.

Morisaki has appeared on the small as well as big screen in Japan (TV series Gakko Ja Oshierarenai and movie features Sherry and Gokusen: The Movie). He has also been lead vocalist of the band PrizmaX.

Shooting is expected to start on the Warner Bros pic later this month. Director Spielberg is producing the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow film via his Amblin Entertainment banner, along with Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah. Cline, Eric Eason, and Zak Penn will write the screenplay. The film will bow on March 30, 2018.