Popverse's top stories of the day

• Marvel's Kevin Feige talked to John Boyega about who he'd play in the MCU, but "there ain't no room for me," says the Star Wars star
• MEMBERS ONLY: Watch the Lord of the Rings movie reunion panel with Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davies, and Andy Serkis from Chicago's C2E2 2025
• Sorry, webheads: Tom Hardy says we weren't as close to that Spidey/Venom movie as was reported

In 1959 Robert A. Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel with strong pro-war sentiments and dash of fascism. In 1997, RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven turned the book into a film that used satire to as a way of combating the original pro-war message. As a result, Starship Troopers is a subtle takedown of the messaging in the original book. However, not all audiences understood the message... and, it turns out, not everyone involved in the movie did, either.

Speaking to a crowd at The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug: A Starship Troopers Reunion panel at C2E2 2025, Michael Ironside noted that American audiences rejected the film because they didn’t understand the message, but international audiences got it. “Everywhere in the world, it did fucking great. Because they got the satire! They got the idea that it was a satire on violence and right-wing manifestos. Paul [Verhoeven] did that.”

Ironside thinks it was a matter of timing. “Paul said to me when the film didn’t do well in North America, he said, ‘You know, maybe I was too subtle for the American consciousness.’ At that time, Reaganomics and all that shit... it was very difficult to pass judgement on what he saw coming for America,” he reasoned.

Audiences of the time shouldn't feel too bad that they didn't get it, though - aome of the actors didn’t realize the film was a satire until after they already wrapped filming, either. “I remember us watching it for the first time, and all of us looked at each other. We didn’t know this was a fucking comedy,” Denise Richards recalled.

Ironside noted that American audiences understand it better now, and he thinks it’s because the country has evolved politically: “It’s actually a statement about how America has grown in the last 26 years or 27 years, and how it’s become more of a global understanding and we’re a lot more political sensitive that I feel this is doing well. They see some of the sarcasm. They see some of the tongue-in-cheek humor and stuff. Europe laughed when they saw the film. They thought it was great. They ate popcorn and yelled, because they saw it as a political satire.”

Popverse members can watch The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug: A Starship Troopers Reunion from C2E2 2025's Main Stage powered by CGC x JSA for yourself as part of Popverse's all-encompassing coverage of C2E2 2025. 

Did you miss a C2E2 Main Stage panel? Don't worry, we're filming it all thanks to our partners at CGC x JSA -  our official authenticator & grading partner. Here is the C2E2 2025 panel list and release schedule.