1997’s Starship Troopers remains more relevant today than when it first hit theaters thirty years ago. Paul Verhoeven’s sharp satire of militarism and xenophobia still resonates, which likely prompted Sony to revisit the franchise with a reboot announced in 2025.
Starship Troopers origins
Before there was the infamous 1997 Starship Troopers film, there was the novel on which the film was based. Released in 1959, the Starship Troopers novel was the brainchild of acclaimed writer Robert A. Heinlein.
Heinlein’s work differs from the film in some major ways, one of these being that it is not a satire and proudly embraces the militaristic nature of the story. Another is that it features exoskeletal suits and bugs that talk. Several attempts to make the novel into a movie failed before acclaimed Danish director Paul Verhoeven (of Robocop and Total Recall fame) stepped in to make it a reality.
The 1997 Starship Troopers film
Verhoeven’s 1997 feature stars Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico, Denise Richards as Carmen, and Dina Meyer as Dizzy.
It charts the adventures of Rico and friends as they navigate their lives in a future society ruled by a militaristic United Citizen Federation, where citizenship is based on mandatory military service.
An Arachnid meteor destroys their home city, forcing the kids into military school, where they push through brutal training, suffer devastating losses, and fight the insects in a war that blurs duty, sacrifice, and government propaganda.
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Box office failure
Made for a budget of around $100 million, Starship Troopers surprisingly did not take off at the box office. Sadly, the film was a box office bomb, grossing only 121 million in theatrical receipts.
Verhoeven planned future installments and eagerly pushed for a direct sequel, but the film’s box office performance shut those plans down. However, the film had tested great and everyone who saw it loved it.
As a result, despite being a box office failure, the film went on to propel the careers of Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, and Casper Van Dien to new highs. It was also highly popular on home media, prompting Sony to greenlight two direct-to-DVD sequels.
The first sequel, released in 2004, featured an all-new character roster, while the second one, released in 2008, saw the return of Casper Van Dien in his iconic role of Johnny Rico.
The franchise later released two animated sequels that brought back more original cast members, while creators briefly explored a TV series before dropping the idea. However, none of these follow-ups managed to capture the essence of the first film, which continues to become more popular each year.
With its themes of fascism, dictatorship, and xenophobia resonating more and more with the changing times, Sony knew they had a franchise on its hands ripe for a reboot.
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What the future holds
The Starship Troopers reboot is also important for Sony, as it has seen most of its other reboots crash and burn. Sony tried to reboot Ghostbusters first, releasing the feminist focused Ghostbusters (2016), which went nowhere.
Similarly designed reboots of Man in Black, Charlie’s Angels, and I Know What You Did Last Summer also fizzled out. For a movie studio being kept on life support by Spider-Man, it is very important for Sony that they get Starship Troopers right.
Neil Blomkamp’s involvement
This is why, 28 years after the first Starship Troopers was released, Sony announced in March 2025 that a reboot was now in development. Neil Blomkamp, the man behind District 9, Elysium, Chappie, and Gran Turismo, will helm the project.
Blomkamp will also write the screenplay, reportedly drawing more inspiration from the 1959 Starship Troopers novel than from Verhoeven’s 1997 film.
However, some voices in Hollywood are concerned that the reboot is ditching the tongue-in-cheek satire of the 1997 film and embracing the fascist, more pro-military aspects of the 1959 novel head-on. Verhoeven added the satire that made 1997’s Starship Troopers famous, since the original novel had no such angle.
With America’s current political climate divided between anti- and pro-fascist forces, choosing to take the new Starship Troopers in that direction would be a striking and bold move.
Neil Blomkamp certainly is the right man for this job.
His District 9 feature is a sombre tale of xenophobia, apartheid, and dehumanization, and his Elysium and Gran Turismo films showed that he can shoot fantastic action sequences that really elevate the story.
However, he has lost his mojo quite a bit in recent times, and that is probably why his Alien 5 never managed to take off. But it seems Sony trusts Blomkamp to do the right thing here, and he seems to be hard at work on the script right now.
So, let’s take a beat before considering if Blomkamp’s Starship Troopers will even materialize or not.
The 1997 Starship Troopers film came out when America was a very different nation, and remaking the story in today’s politically charged climate is undoubtedly a bold move.
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Let’s see how the new reboot turns out before we write it off, and fingers crossed that it actually turns out to be good.
