‘Starship Troopers’ Star Has One Rule for Returning to the Sci-Fi Cult Classic [Exclusive]

We all know it, and we all love it; Starship Troopers is one of the best films of the 1990s. However, it wasn’t always seen that way. Upon release, the sci-fi classic faced pretty scathing reviews, with an overwhelmingly negative reaction rumbling through Hollywood. Incredibly, this anti-fascist satire of war — directed by a man who grew up in Nazi-occupied territory — was seen as pro-fascist, with critics tearing down its supposed military-glorifying propaganda. Thankfully, time has been kind to Starship Troopers, and its true intent has shone through in the years since.

Now it has taken its place as one of the best of its kind from that era, Starship Troopers is, of course, the subject of much reboot and remake speculation. In fact, it was confirmed in 2025 that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp would be taking on a new interpretation of the 1959 book by Robert A. Heinlein, instead of reworking the 1997 movie, which is likely to remove much of the biting satire. This comes after two direct sequels to Paul Verhoeven‘s film have already been produced, including the most recent in 2017.

None has quite lived up to the genius, campy standard of the 1997 edition, with fans still waiting for news of a specific reboot of that movie. In an interview with Collider’s Maggie Lovitt at the Indiana Comic Convention, Amy Smart, who portrays a pilot cadet in the movie, was asked if she would return if a long-rumored TV reboot got the green light. “I mean, if they decide to do it well, yeah,” she responded, giving fans hope that a revival could be on the cards. She also shed some light on her experience working on the film, saying:

“I didn’t get the script. I just got my character, and we were filming on stage. I mean, I only have a few scenes in it, but Paul Verhoeven was such a big director, meaning he was very energetic, and we were on the sound stage with nothing around us, and he was yelling, so loud, so animated, and fun. So he got everyone going. I took it very seriously. I thought it was a very serious movie. Then I went to the theater, and I was like, ‘Everyone’s laughing. Oh.’ It was fun.”

‘Starship Troopers’ Was a Box Office Bomb

Perhaps unsurprisingly, thanks to the wild misinterpretation of the movie that took place upon its release, Starship Troopers was an undeniable box office bomb. The film boasted a bloated production budget of over $100 million, according to reports, and could only return $121 million at the global box office, split between a domestic haul of $55 million and a further $66 million from overseas markets. The film did open at #1 in the U.S., but quickly dropped to second-place in weekend #2.

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