Amy Smart, who played a pilot cadet in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers, says she’d come back for a TV reboot “if they decide to do it well.” Her comments come as Neill Blomkamp’s 2025 shift to reinterpret Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 book — instead of reworkin
Amy Smart remembers what it felt like to step into Starship Troopers’ world—then immediately watch audiences react to it in a way that surprised her.
“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.”.
That moment captures the uneasy ride Starship Troopers has always been on: an anti-fascist war satire that. when it arrived. was met with scathing reviews and an overwhelmingly negative reaction rumbling through Hollywood. Critics tore into what they saw as pro-fascist, military-glorifying propaganda—despite the film’s anti-fascist intent. Now, time has been kinder, and its true intent has shone through in the years since.
The debate hasn’t gone away, even as the franchise kept moving. After Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film, two direct sequels were produced, with the most recent arriving in 2017. Still, fans have kept waiting for news of a specific reboot of the 1997 movie.
That patience is being tested again by what’s now being described as a different kind of next chapter. In 2025, it was confirmed that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp would be taking on a new interpretation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 book. rather than reworking the 1997 movie—an approach that’s likely to remove much of the biting satire fans associate with Verhoeven’s version.
But Smart’s own answer. delivered during an interview with Maggie Lovitt at the Indiana Comic Convention. is the closest thing to a direct roadmap for what she’d want from any comeback. Asked if she would return if a long-rumored TV reboot got the green light. she said: “I mean. if they decide to do it well. yeah.”.
There’s a reason that line lands. Starship Troopers wasn’t built to be misunderstood. yet it was—at release—seen as pro-fascist by critics. and the misunderstanding spread far beyond a niche audience. The timing of the next steps. and the creative choices now being discussed. will determine whether any revival lands with the same unsettling clarity—rather than the same public confusion.
The franchise has also carried the sting of commercial failure. Starship Troopers was a box office bomb, with a bloated production budget of over $100 million. It could only return $121 million at the global box office. split between a domestic haul of $55 million and $66 million from overseas markets. The movie opened at number 1 in the U.S., then dropped to second place in weekend two.
Smart’s memory of Verhoeven’s energy on set—followed by the laughter she heard in the theater—adds another layer to what fans are hoping for. With a reboot or reinvention still in flux, her “if they decide to do it well” rule boils down to one thing: get the tone right, or don’t bother.
Smart also remains tethered to the core identity of the story itself. In the film, she portrays a pilot cadet. Starship Troopers arrived on November 7, 1997, and runs 129 minutes. Paul Verhoeven directed the film, with Edward Neumeier as one of the writers.
The sequels already exist—Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. Starship Troopers: Invasion. and Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars—but the version audiences still keep comparing everything to is the 1997 edition. Whether the next attempt is a TV revival. a new interpretation. or something else entirely. Smart’s answer makes the stakes feel personal: a return isn’t about coming back to the uniform—it’s about getting the intent right when the lights go on.
Starship Troopers Amy Smart Neill Blomkamp Paul Verhoeven Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers TV reboot Indiana Comic Convention 1997 film District 9 director
So they’re rebooting it? Kinda wild because Starship Troopers already feels like a “nope” movie lol.
I don’t get how people thought it was pro-fascist when it’s literally making fun of the whole thing. Critics always jump to conclusions. Also Amy Smart said she didn’t even get the script?? that seems backwards.
Wait is this the one where the bugs or whatever are the bad guys? Bc if it’s about that, then sure, bring it back. But I swear Hollywood just keeps reinterpreting Heinlein like it’s gonna magically fix the reviews.
Honestly I think people were laughing because the movie was dumb, not because it was satire. Like yelling on set and “fun” doesn’t mean the message lands. If they do a TV reboot, they better not make it all serious hero propaganda again, bc that’s what I heard it was even if she says it was anti-fascist. I’m confused what’s actually canon now too, sequels and all that.