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Reports have been circulating for years about a new take on the Starship Troopers mythology being developed, with star of the 1997 film Casper Van Dien making a pitch for director Robert Rodriguez to get involved in the potential project. The 1997 film was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by author Robert A. Heinlein, with that film earning multiple sequels. That 1997 film was directed by Paul Verhoeven and, much like other films in his career, Starship Troopers was largely overlooked at the time of its release, only for subsequent years to see the underlying themes and subtext to become much more prevalent in the real world.
“I would love it if Robert Rodriguez was in the mix,” Van Dien shared with Inverse. “I would love it and I think he would be the perfect guy for it. Robert and I, when we were working on Alita: Battle Angel together, he was talking to me the whole time about Starship Troopers. I know he loves the movie.”
In addition to Rodriguez, filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright have professed their love for the prescient film, with Van Dien endorsing the idea of any of them coming to the franchise.
“I think that all those directors, it would be fun, to have them come in and do an episode or two or three, or an arc, or something like that,” the actor admitted. “I think it would be fun if we had that kind of thing where it’s real filmmakers making the thing. That would be my goal.”
On the surface, the film is a sci-fi spectacle about humans carrying out an intergalactic war with invasive insect monsters, with its underlying themes being about the military-industrial complex and the spread of propaganda among impressionable youths. If a new project were to move forward, Van Dien would like to see it connect the dots between all the corners of the franchise.
“I’m not opposed to The Roughneck Chronicles or the original 1980 cartoon movie that came out that was all in Japanese or just the book, itself,” Van Dien confessed. “I think it would be fun to maybe put it all in the Starship Troopers universe … and I think it would be nice to have ‘Old Man Rico’ back. I think it would be fun to have some young blood in there but still have one old crotchety old man in there like me.”
Stay tuned for details on the possible future of Starship Troopers.
How would you like to see the series continue? Let us know in the comments below!