Actor Jake Busey discusses the possibility of Casper Van Dien and himself returning for a Starship Troopers TV series. Starship Troopers is of course the 1997 sci-fi action film that was directed by RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven. In the original film, Busey played Ace Levy, who competed against Johnny Rico for the position of Squad Leader, while Van Dien played Rico.
It was first reported back in 2011 that a reboot of Starship Troopers was officially in the works. The reboot was said to be less violent and feature more CGI, which pointed to a possible PG-13 rating. Nothing really seemed to materialize, but in 2015, the first discussions about a Starship Troopers TV show began. They’re haven’t been a lot of updates about the Starship Troopers TV show, but Busey seems optimistic about the chances of the show.
Related: Where Are They Now? The Cast Of Starship Troopers
When sitting down with HN Entertainment, Busey commented on the likelihood of he and Van Dien returning for a Starship Troopers TV show. Busey did confirm that himself and his costar had previously spoken with writer Ed Neumeier about the live-action Starship Troopers TV show, which was revealed to be in development in January. When explaining what their potential roles could look like in the TV show, Busey said, “so I think Casper and I would be older men in the battle, in the war room, in the planning room or at the helm of a destroyer but not necessarily boots on the ground. We’re old guys now if you’re 45 years old you’re not going to be running around doing the boot camp thing. But yeah, a TV series would be great”.
The first Starship Troopers is considered the best of the series, although there has been a total of four sequels and an animated TV series called Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles. Even though there has been a lot of Starship Troopers content over the last two decades, Van Dien has only returned for Starship Troopers 3: Marauder and lent his voice for the animated sequel Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars. Busey on the other hand never returned to his role of Ace Levy after his appearance in the 1997 film.
While the R-rated animated movies have given fans a unique take on the franchise, many fans would love to see Busey and Van Dien return to their Starship Troopers roles in a live-action form. With Hollywood being able to profit off of reboots and remakes of popular ’90s films as of late, making a new Starship Troopers movie or TV show seems like a safe bet, especially if the original cast would return. After all, Verhoeven’s Total Recall and RoboCop have both received remakes in the last decade, so Hollywood is no stranger to Verhoeven’s work.
