Helldivers 2's Success Proves Why 1 Underrated Sci-Fi Franchise NEEDS Rebooting

Summary Helldivers 2's success highlights the need for a new Starship Troopers movie reboot with bold political satire.

Similar to Verhoeven's original, Helldivers 2 cleverly critiques fascism through in-game propaganda and actions.

Starship Troopers franchise lost its satirical edge in sequels, but Helldivers 2 offers a blueprint for a fresh approach.

The success of Helldivers 2 proves that the Starship Troopers franchise is overdue a new movie reboot. The critical reaction to 1997’s satire of military fascism Starship Troopers is a fascinating instance of audiences missing the message of a movie. Director Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s novel depicted a group of soldiers in the 23rd century battling a race of extraterrestrial insects in a bid to dominate the galaxy. However, Verhoeven's ambitious flop Starship Troopers was secretly a razor-sharp satire of fascism, militarism, and imperialism, something that was missed by many reviewers upon its original release.

The game Helldivers 2 recently inspired a similar controversy, as noted by NBC, when its broad satirical message was misunderstood and ignored by some reviewers. Like Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 focuses on human soldiers battling a race of alien insects in the far future. Like Verhoeven’s adaptation, Helldivers 2 includes swathes of in-universe propaganda that illustrate an explicitly fascist viewpoint. Players are encouraged to wipe out the Terminids that have escaped containment as they could pose a risk to humans, but the game never lets the audience forget that humans colonized their planet and farmed Terminids for resources before their escape.

Helldivers 2 Is Succeeding Because Of Starship Troopers Legacy

Paul Verhoeven’s Underrated Sci-fi Satire Shaped Helldivers 2

Close

Helldivers 2 is a massive critical and commercial success, and this is due at least in part to the smart sci-fi satire’s similarities with Starship Troopers. Verhoeven’s movie was wildly under-appreciated in its time, but the popularity of Helldivers 2 proves the Starship Troopers series is overdue a reboot. The later Starship Troopers sequels wasted the satirical viewpoint of Verhoeven’s original movie, leaning into action and violent sci-fi horror at the expense of political commentary. Now that time has been kind to the underrated original, the franchise needs a reboot that doubles down on Verhoeven’s controversial satirical message.

Like Helldivers 2, Starship Troopers doesn’t explicitly acknowledge its satirical message in-universe. One late scene sees major main characters dressed in uniforms that resemble the SS, but the movie still maintains a misaimed fandom among viewers who think that the human characters are unambiguous heroes. The positive reviews received by Helldivers 2 prove that a big, action-packed mainstream hit can be filled with this sort of subversive satire, as the game uses snatches of propaganda to cleverly hint at the idea that its human heroes are colonial invaders from a fascist planet who have been brainwashed by a ruthless genocidal ideology.

The Starship Troopers Franchise Has Been Wasted Since The Original

Starship Troopers’ Sequels Lost The Original Movie’s Satirical Bite

The second Starship Troopers movie switches genres to focus on grisly sci-fi horror, losing the thread of the original movie’s satire in the process. The balance struck by Paul Verhoeven’s best American movies is tough to replicate as the director blended genuinely striking action sequences with witty political commentary, but Starship Troopers 3: Marauder at least tried to revisit this approach. This follow-up took aim at religion rather than militarism, but its satirical jabs were less successful than the original movie’s sharp writing. The later animated sequels abandoned the original satirical tone almost entirely, depicting the humans as unironically heroic.

The Starship Troopers franchise could potentially be a clever satire of propaganda and the military-industrial complex’s relationship to Hollywood. As noted by the podcast Chapo Trap House, the original Starship Troopers succeeded largely because it functions like an in-universe propaganda movie. Starship Troopers feels like the sort of over-the-top entertainment that humanity would watch in the movie’s dystopian version of the 23rd century, complete with state-mandated censorship and commercial breaks advertising military conscription. The popularity of Helldivers 2 proves there is a market for this sort of smart satire, especially when it is blended with the high-octane, bloody action seen in Starship Troopers.

How Helldivers 2 Can Shape Another Starship Troopers Movie

A New Starship Troopers Reboot Could Regain The Franchise’s Mean Streak

Helldivers 2’s success could shape a Starship Troopers reboot, since the game has proven that the franchise doesn’t need to shy away from overt political satire to succeed. Later sequels in the series didn’t feature anything as brazenly comedic as the fake advertisements from Starship Troopers, but Helldivers 2 includes propaganda posters of Terminids razing suburban homes. The video game didn’t prioritize subtlety in its satire and succeeded as a result, meaning a Starship Troopers reboot could learn from this.

By the end of Starship Troopers, most of the heroes have been brutally killed, but the gormless remaining protagonists are eager to send more troops to their deaths, since Neil Patrick Harris’s resident psychic, dressed in Nazi-esque regalia, reassures them that the bugs are “Scared.” The point of the movie seems extremely obvious, yet critics still somehow read Verhoeven’s flop as a celebration of fascism rather than a condemnation. The success of Helldivers 2 27 years later proves that any subsequent Starship Troopers movie should lean into this bold, unapologetic satirical style instead of playing down the franchise’s politically charged elements.