Casper Van Dien has been one of the leading actors of the entire Starship Troopers franchise since the first film debuted in 1997.
Since then, the franchise has exploded across three live-action films, two animated movies, two animated shows, and six video games.
Now, the series is expanding into the VR space with Starship Trooper: Continuum.
The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down in an exclusive interview with actor Casper Van Dien, who reprised his role of Johnny Rico in Continuum, where the actor had nothing but great things to say about his new VR role.
How New to VR Is Starship Troopers Star Casper Van Dien?
"I'm Having a Dream Come True..."
- The Direct: "Well, my first question is just a simple one: what is your experience with VR?"
Casper Van Dien: I am brand new to VR. I've done the voiceover for several games over the years, and also a pinball machine earlier on when it first came out, and a couple of the animated movies, I did a voiceover for one of them. So I've been involved with 'Starship Troopers' for a long time after doing the first and third movies; I've loved it.
People yelled quotes at me for all my years, and then to get to do them in these last two of the video games, 'Extermination,' and now this VR. This is my first step into VR. My first time playing it was yesterday, and I got to kill three different bugs. I got to kill a warrior, a hopper, and a tanker bug... It was a lot of fun. I was having so much fun.
... So I'm having a dream come true... I just think it's one of the coolest things in the whole world, and I'm loving it, and I love the experience with the gamers. It's been really positive for me.
I played with Bobby [Thandi], who was one of the creators of it. He said, 'You don't understand, Casper, I love the movie, and I loved that you did the voiceover for it.' But then when we played yesterday, and you killed a Hopper, and he goes, 'I couldn't believe it.' He goes, I'm playing with Johnny Rico and I'm like, 'Yeah, Brother, let's kill it. Kill them all.' So it was a blast. It was so surreal.
I mean, I've been playing 'Extermination,' which is a 16-person shooter. I've been streaming that and everything like that. And now I'm going to stream this one too. And, you know, I just played on Meta Quest. I play as General J Rico on all the video games that I play.
How Will Fans of Starship Troopers Appreciate Continuum?
"If You Like the Movies, You're Going to Be in the Movie Now..."
- The Direct: "What do you think fans of the franchise will get the biggest kick out of when it comes to playing this VR game?"
Casper Van Dien: If you like the movies, you're going to be in the movie now, which is kind of surreal for me to even think about it. I mean, we're in the future, right now, in the present, and you can get in a VR game. It feels like you're old school gaming, but in a new way, in a virtual way, was so surreal for me to be in there. I loved it. I loved every experience. It was unbelievable to be in there.
And I've talked to a couple of VR guys who were big experts on it. They've loved it too. So, so far, it's been real positive. And what's interesting for me yesterday, because I was in the stream... I was streaming 'Starship Troopers Extermination.' And in the chat, I told them that I just played 'Starship Troopers Continuum,' and then I killed three bugs, and one guy went out and bought it, and then I streamed again later at night, and he goes, 'Casper, I bought the game, and I played, and I've already killed like nine different bug types in,' and I go, 'What? I go, 'I just killed only three. I just told you about it today. How could you already––He's already leveled up. I don't know how the hell he's been able to do it.
But it's unbelievable how good gamers are and how serious they are about gaming, and how much he loved it. He couldn't believe it. So two other people went out and bought the game, too, just because he was saying that. So that was awesome to see.
Casper Van Dien on the Many Bugs in Continuum's VR Shooter
Casper Van Dien Teased That There Are Plenty of Bug Types to Slaughter
- The Direct: "Where does this story in this VR game take place relative to the rest of the lore?"
Casper Van Dien: It's 25 years after the original so I think they're taking the bugs from some of them, some new ones, some old ones, some of the movies, and some of that, as 'Extermination' did as well. They took a whole bunch of bugs from all five movies... There are so many bugs you can take from, but it's kind of cool to see it take off where you can experience new things. It's just a great game.
You feel like you're an arcade shooter, but you're in the arcade shooter. So it's really, I don't know how else to explain that, for me, that was the experience I had. And you're going out with two to three people. You're going on a mission. It's a single-player campaign, too. There are a lot of different weapons you get, and there's a shooting range you can warm up on, which I tried yesterday.
Casper Van Dien on Helldivers 2 and A Possible Crossover
"I Think It Would Be Awesome If They [Crossed Over]."
The Direct: Have you heard of 'Helldivers'?
Casper Van Dien: I know that's also brought a lot of fans to it. I've seen its gameplay [and it] was awesome. I've always loved all the tribute games, from 'Helldivers' to when 'Halo' first came out. I was like, guys, that's 'Starship Troopers.' That's why we need to make a video game...They're like, well, we make movies, guys, we're not video games. I guess I'm showing too much of my nerd card at the time, but I've always wanted one.
And 'Helldivers' is really cool. I saw it. I can tell that the guy obviously, was definitely influenced by it. And he later told me, when I friended him on Twitter... I always wanted Starship Troopers video games. Now I have two, and I'm playing both of them, and I play them as General J Rico, and I stream it as Casper Van Dien, and people are going, 'Wait a minute, this really is you, and you're really playing it. Why? This is awesome!' And I'm like, Yeah, 'It's awesome for me too. Now let's kill some bugs!'
The Direct: How would you feel one day about a big crossover between 'Starship Troopers' and 'Helldivers,' would that be something you'd be interested in partaking in?
Dien: I think it would be awesome if they did that. And I'm always game for anything. I'd be willing to do my part!
What Is It About Starship Troopers That Resonates With Audiences?
"The Political Commentary, Unfortunately, Is Still Extremely Relevant..."
- The Direct: "What is it about Starship Troopers do you think really endures and connects with people even after all these years?
Casper Van Dien: I think that Paul Verhoeven and [Edward] Neumeier both have genius IQs, and their satire in this film was pretty intense. So intense that both the left and the right have claimed that it's theirs. So, the political commentary, unfortunately, is still extremely relevant in today's society, maybe even more so today.
And I think that if you get a movie that makes both sides talk, have a discussion, and claim things without having the hatred and the vitriol that was before, I think that it even shows more intelligent things. So that's why I think these movies had legs.
And I think that a series like this going on would be incredible, and I think it would, you know, there's a lot of material that we could use for, and there's a lot of things that we could pull on without having to necessarily alienate the other side.
I've had people from all different political parties and resources claim that this movie really represents them, and that, to me, is awesome because you have people who want to see it as their way of seeing it.
And at least this movie is, you know, the characters have grown, and they have changed. And you see Rico joining up for a woman for an alternative reason, become really good at being a soldier. And then through this arc of the movies and now the games, you can see that he's now starting to see that he's got to work with his people [who] are more important than any of the actual Federation. But he still wants to get the job done. He's still good at this job and all this.
I hope somehow Sony sees something and hears something I don't know, maybe we can get it across to them.
The full interview can be viewed below:
Starship Troopers: Continuum is now available on Meta Quest and lands on PSVR 2 on November 25.
