What Happened To The Cast Of Starship Troopers?

When Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" was released in 1997, people were baffled. It's about a futuristic society where humanity battles "bugs" — an alien race from a far-off planet. It's about the thrill of signing on to the military, and then it's about the absolute horror of war. "Starship Troopers" is a vicious satire, meant to make visible the way that blind patriotism, propaganda-induced xenophobia, and unchecked military power lead to fascism and genocide.

Critics and audiences rejected the film, missing that the movie does not support the fervor with which its characters celebrate the destruction of an alien race. "I was using [Leni] Riefenstahl to point out, or so I thought, that these heroes and heroines were straight out of Nazi propaganda," Verhoeven later told The Guardian. "No one saw it at the time ... I thought Neil Patrick Harris arriving on the set in an SS uniform might clear it up."

Verhoeven is right; the film's casting goes a long way toward making its satire work, as each too-attractive "good guy" is revealed to be a fascist. These days — especially on the other side of the War on Terror, which made Americans all too familiar with the dangers of preemptive self-defense — the movie is rightfully recognized as a classic. Still, most of the actors didn't sign on for the movie's sequels, most of which miss the satire of Verhoeven's original. So, what happened to the cast of "Starship Troopers?" Would you like to know more? Read on!

Casper Van Dien played Johnny Rico in "Starship Troopers." At first, he enlists because he's in love with a classmate named Carmen (Denise Richards). Once he sees combat, though, Johnny quickly rises through the ranks as each commanding officer gets killed, molding him into a fascist fighting machine rather than an idealistic young kid. "I felt the human characters should have a comic-book look," Paul Verhoeven told The Guardian. "I was looking for the prototype of blond, white and arrogant, and Casper Van Dien was so close to the images I remembered from Leni Riefenstahl's films."

These days, Van Dien insists that he knew what he was signing on for. "Someone once asked me if it was true that I did not know 'Starship Troopers' was satire," he told Salon. "I said, 'Have you not seen a Verhoeven film?' Two actors said they didn't know it was. I looked at them and said, 'How could you not know this wasn't a comedy? Did you not see 'RoboCop?'"

After "Starship Troopers," Van Dien went on to star in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow," and he closed out the decade playing Tarzan in "Tarzan and the Lost City." In addition to returning for several "Starship Troopers" sequels, Van Dien is an incredibly prolific B-movie star, leading films like "Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf," "Fire Twister," "500 MPH Storm," and many, many more. "Art and literature and music and movies are important," he told Salon. "I'm grateful to be a part of that."

Neil Patrick Harris was best known as the titular doctor on "Doogie Howser, M.D." when he starred in "Starship Troopers." He played Carl Jenkins, a classmate of Johnny and Carmen's who goes on to lead the "Games and Theory" division of military intelligence. He seems to have psychic abilities, including being able to communicate telepathically with animals, and as Paul Verhoeven noted to The Guardian, he sure dresses a lot like a Nazi. Harris told Greg in Hollywood that the cast took filming seriously, marveling at the tonal shift Verhoeven was able to pull off. "It was supposed to be more commentary, with a society that becomes grossly Aryan and how that turns all other species into bugs and they all need to die," he said. "But when you watch it later, it's intentionally funny and ironic."

Harris would go on to shed his "Doogie Howser" persona in "How I Met Your Mother." He played the womanizing Barney Stinson on the long-running sitcom, a far cry from the nerdy characters he was known for earlier in his career. Interestingly, Harris hated the title of "How I Met Your Mother," telling GQ, "Who names a show 'How I Met Your Mother'? There's not even any rhyming to it. Like, a bunch of basic words put together as a sentence; it's not a title."

He starred in "Gone Girl" and played Count Olaf on "A Series of Unfortunate Events," and he'd also return to sci-fi. In "The Matrix Resurrections," Harris played The Analyst. 

Denise Richards played Carmen Ibanez in "Starship Troopers," an idealistic fighter pilot who's all too excited to join the battle against the bugs. While Richards refused to film an NSFW "Starship Troopers" scene, she also didn't concern herself with the movie's political implications, telling The Guardian, "I didn't think about the politics –- I was just hoping not to get fired from my first big movie!" Carmen is also involved in a love triangle — quadrangle? — that includes various combinations of Johnny Rico, Zander Barcalow, and Dizzy Flores. "If there were negative audience reactions to her swapping between two men, I didn't hear about it," she said.

Richards was a sensation in the 1990s, landing roles in "Wild Things," "Drop Dead Gorgeous," and the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough," in which she played Dr. Christmas Jones. In the 2000s, she starred in "Love Actually," "Scary Movie 3," "Blue Mountain State," and many more. She's still quite a prolific actor, starring in many made-for-TV films like "My Adventures with Santa," "A Christmas Frequency," and "My Christmas Fiancé."

Between 2019 and 2022, she played Shauna in 188 episodes of "The Bold and the Beautiful." She was also one of the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" for several seasons, later telling Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live" that she didn't regret participating in the franchise. "I felt like I was open and honest," she said. "I met a lot of great friends from that show."

Carmen Ibanez isn't Johnny Rico's only love interest in "Starship Troopers." He also has a fling with Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), another cadet from his high school class who gets sucked into the military apparatus in hopes of becoming a "citizen" rather than just a "civilian." Meyer told Red Carpet News TV that she initially was supposed to audition to play Carmen, but she asked Paul Verhoeven if she could read for Dizzy instead. "It was my third big movie, and I was very excited to get that role," she said. "I thought she was just a more fun role for someone like myself to play."

After playing Dizzy, Meyer went on to star as Batgirl on the "Birds of Prey" television show. She's put in appearances on numerous television shows, including "Nip/Tuck," "Burn Notice," "The Mentalist," "Castle," "Criminal Minds," "The Magicians," "Code Black," and many more.

Aside from "Starship Troopers," Meyer is perhaps best known as Detective Allison Kerry in the "Saw" franchise, a role she played in the first four films. She told Red Carpet News TV that she signed on after watching the short film that director James Wan made first, remembering, "I was like, wow, this is really disturbing and crazy, and yes, I would love to work the one day with Danny Glover ... I had no idea that it was going to be so successful."

The first half of "Starship Troopers" is about Johnny Rico's experience being trained by the military. As they all jockey for the squad leader position, Johnny is paired up with a bunch of other hotshot cadets, including Ace Levy (Jake Busey). Busey told UPI that it took him 20 years to understand the movie. "Buried in the subtext of the story, we see that the movie is fascism versus communism, and that the bugs are actually the good guys," he said. "When you realize all that, it's just a major head-trip."

Busey is still a working actor. He played Aidan Tanner on the "From Dusk Till Dawn" television show, had an arc as Bruce on "Stranger Things," appeared in "The Predator," and starred in Alec Baldwin's controversial "Rust," which was ignored at the box office. Busey seems to understand his career, telling Den of Geek, "I was in a lot of movies that were supposed to be amazing, but for one reason or another, circumstances out of the control of the producers and the studio or whatever, I just didn't lock into being in the right role in the right big movie, and it going huge. I did never really make the leap to hyperspace."

He also spends time repairing motorcycles. "It's really great. We have a good time working here, and it's my day job," he explained. "I clock into work here, and all my free moments I have between being a daddy and [acting] are here."

At boot camp, Johnny Rico is trained by Career Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown), a hard-nosed military man who loves to shout at his trainees. He's not afraid to break them down mentally and physically, even breaking the arm of a cadet who dares to challenge him. In the end, Sgt. Zim takes a voluntary demotion so that he can join the war against the bugs. Brown loved the film, telling The AV Club years later that he understood what they were making all along. "I thought it was just spectacular. I thought it worked on so many levels," he said. "Taking all those 'Melrose Place' models and just mutilating them? That's so Verhoeven."

Brown is a prolific character actor who went on to roles in projects like "The Informant!," "Green Lantern," "Hail, Caesar!," "Lost," "Cowboys & Aliens," and "Warcraft." He's perhaps best known as a voice actor, having done voiceover work for shows like "Phineas and Ferb," "Lloyd in Space," "Kim Possible," and "Jackie Chan Adventures."

Most famously of all, Brown is the voice behind Mr. Krabs on "SpongeBob SquarePants." He told The AV Club that he's grateful to be part of the show, marveling, "There's all sorts of miracle stories about 'SpongeBob,' and I don't know what combination of colors and sounds they've hit on or whatever it is about that world, but it goes right to the childish part of our brain and kind of fixes everything for a little while."

As Johnny Rico's commanding officers begin to die off, leading to several promotions, he meets more and more members of the military. One such temporary boss is Sugar Watkins, played by Seth Gilliam. He's the kind of guy who totes a massive gun everywhere he goes, and he's not afraid to be slathered in bug blood if it means a battle well-fought. 

Speaking with Fork! The News, Gilliam shared a fun memory from shooting the film before all of the CGI aliens were added. "We were out on location ... in the Badlands of South Dakota, and we were firing our massive weapons, and we were basically shooting at the director, Paul Verhoeven, who was on the other side of the camera running around going, 'The bugs are coming!'" He added, "That was kind of like being back in acting school, where someone hands you an imaginary apple."

Since "Starship Troopers," Gilliam has had a thriving career on television. In addition to short stints on shows like "The Good Wife," "Skins," "Nurse Jackie," and "Elementary," Gilliam played Ellis Carver on "The Wire," Dr. Alan Deaton on "Teen Wolf," and Father Gabriel Stokes on "The Walking Dead" and "The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live."

The aliens in "Starship Troopers" have massive mandibles, meaning it's super simple for them to chomp off a human limb. Lots of characters are missing arms or legs, including Michael Ironside's character Jean Rasczak. He starts the movie as a high school teacher in Buenos Aires; eventually, as the war heats up, he joins the front lines thanks to the help of a prosthetic arm. 

Though he's great in the movie, Ironside didn't understand at first why Paul Verhoeven would direct "Starship Troopers." He asked Verhoeven what his take on the material would be, and as quoted by the actor, the director told him, "I want to create a society where everyone is beautiful. The men are beautiful. The women are beautiful. Everything works perfect. Everything is clean. Everything is immaculate. And this whole incredible structure that they've built for themselves is only good for killing bugs!" Consider Ironside sold.

Ironside went on to play military roles in projects as varied as "Terminator Salvation," "X-Men: First Class," "Community," "Smallville," and many more. In 2015, he starred in the Sundance hit "Turbo Kid" in a role that was a sort of send-up of his star persona, telling Den of Geek, "This is tongue-in-cheek, on purpose. I don't want to give stuff away, but we wanted to take a caricature to the edge without going over." More recent roles include "BlackBerry," "Late Night With The Devil," and "Barry."

Patrick Muldoon plays Zander Barcalow in "Starship Troopers," another flight school cadet who becomes romantically entangled with Carmen. Even though he's Johnny Rico's romantic rival, he seems like a relatively nice guy, much like any of these fascists can be nice guys. He also has one of the most gruesome deaths in the whole film, coming into contact with what the army calls a "brain bug" that, funny enough, has a thirst for his brain. "I didn't succeed in the movie – I got my brain sucked out — but off screen we were boyfriend and girlfriend," Muldoon revealed to Mr. Media, referring to his relationship at the time with co-star Denise Richards.

Before "Starship Troopers," Muldoon was one of those "'Melrose Place' models" that Clancy Brown enjoyed seeing get mutilated. He was a daytime soap hunk too; he later reprised his star-making role as Austin Reed on "Days of Our Lives." He's starred in numerous direct-to-video family films like "Bernie the Dolphin," "Bernie the Dolphin 2," "The Dog Who Saved Easter," and "The Dog Who Saved Summer." 

Muldoon reunited with his "Starship Troopers" co-star Casper Van Dien in "Born to Ride," a 2011 movie about biker gangs. "Casper and I are great friends. Neither one of us knew how to ride a motorcycle when we started shooting that," Muldoon told Media Mikes. "It was such a rush. By the grace of God, we got out of that movie alive."

One of the best things about "Starship Troopers" is that even actors in minor roles make meals of their performances. That's true for Dean Norris, who stars in just a few scenes as a commanding officer who disciplines Johnny Rico after he accidentally gets someone killed during a training exercise. The officer sentences Johnny to "administrative punishment," which means a public whipping; that's one of the most disturbing details in "Starship Troopers." "When it came out ... a lot of people just kind of railed on it, and it kind of came and went, to a certain extent," Norris recalled to IGN years later. "But, over the years, more and more people come up to me and go, 'Forty lashes!'"

Norris most famously played Hank Schrader, the DEA agent who's actually Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) brother-in-law on "Breaking Bad." The character was killed off, leading Norris to tell NPR, "I've been killed before, but not a character that I played for so long and gotten to know, and got inside his skin. When we filmed it, it was just sad." He parlayed that part into recurring roles on "Under the Dome," "Claws," "United States of Al," "Ghosts," and "Law & Order: Organized Crime."

Captain Deladier is another minor "Starship Troopers" role played by an actor who just tears into the material. Brenda Strong starred as the flight school instructor, a charismatic yet hardline pilot who takes Carmen under her wing — no pun intended. "There's this tennis ball that's going across the space that we're supposed to be reacting to, these different points where the ships are colliding in front of us and people are falling out or whatever," Strong recalled in an interview with That Thing They Did. "And I just looked at Paul [Verhoeven] and I said, 'If your special effects don't match my reactions, I'm coming for you.'"

She gets a pretty brutal death in the movie, getting cut in half when the ship she's on explodes and an emergency door closes right down her midsection ... but that didn't stop Strong from being one of the only actors to return for a sequel. She starred in "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" as a completely different character.

Strong then went on to star in "Desperate Housewives"  as Mary Alice, the murdered woman who narrates the series. She told People that it was wild to witness her voice become more famous than her face, recalling, "I was standing in my local Starbucks on my way to work one day, and someone near me who wasn't really paying attention heard me order my tea. They immediately turned and said, 'Mary Alice.'"