Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One may be filled with nostalgic imagery from the 1980s, but one of its breakout stars wasn’t even born until 2004.
Philip Zhao plays Sho, a member of the High Five helping to save the 2045 virtual-reality universe the OASIS.
Now 14 years old, Zhao was only 12 during the filming of the blockbuster — although he is quick to point out that he turned 13 on set. Either way, a pretty impressive age to make your feature film debut working with older actors and a legendary director like Spielberg.
“I was like a little brother to them,” Zhao told FANDOM. “They would tease me a lot and I would just look up to them.”
The project is the first film Zhao has ever been in, but after his hilarious breakout performance, it certainly won’t be the last. So what’s his dream for the future? Becoming a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course.
“I want to be in the MCU,” he said with excitement. “That’s my biggest dream. I know [ReadyPlayer One] is a Warner Bros. movie, but come on. At the end of the day, the MCU is fantastic.” (Warner Bros. has the rights to DC, Marvel’s comic-book competition.)
Zhao specified that he’d want to be a part of the Avengers, noting “that’s like the biggest MCU franchise there is.” And when it comes to what the teen actor’s personal FANDOMS are — you guessed it, that’s all Marvel, too.
“I am currently stuck on the Black Panther soundtrack,” he said. “And I’m gonna have to say Thor: Ragnarok was my favorite movie of 2017 … Taika Waititi [the voice of Korg] just made it great.”
But this year, he’s all about Ready Player One, of course, and has some ideas for what new technology he’d like to see in the year 2045.
“I would like a little robot dog,” Zhao said. “I have a dog, his name is Leo, he’s a Goldendoodle, and the thing I’m scared of the most is the day when he passes away. So I just need a robot dog that’s there forever. But they have to make it fuzzy as well and huggable. So … exactly the same but just lives forever.”
It’s hard to argue with that! Find out what exists in Spielberg’s version of 2045 — and watch Zhao steal every scene he’s in — by checking out Ready Player One, in theaters now.