Fictional space marines have been included in a variety of short stories, novels, films, television, and games from the 1930s to the present.[1] [2]
| Author | Title | Year(s) published | Unit name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Olsen | "Captain Brink of the Space Marines" | 1932 | Space Marines | |
| Bob Olsen | "The Space Marines and the Slavers" | 1936 | Space Marines | |
| E. E. Smith | Lensman series | 1934–1954 | Galactic Marines | |
| Robert A. Heinlein | "Misfit" | 1939 | Space Marines | |
| John York Cabot | "Sergeant Shane of the Space Marines" | 1941 | Space Marines | |
| John York Cabot | "The Odds on Sergeant Shane" | 1941 | Space Marines | |
| John York Cabot | "Sergeant Shane Goes to War" | 1942 | Space Marines | |
| Duncan Farnsworth | "Flight from Farisha" | 1942 | Space Marines | |
| D. D. Sharp | "Pillage of the Space-Marine" | 1943 | Space-Marines | |
| Bob Courtney | "Aid to the Enemy" | 1943 | Space-Marines | |
| Robert A. Heinlein | "The Long Watch" | 1949 | Space Marines | |
| Theodore Cogswell | "The Spectre General" | 1952 | Imperial Space Marines | |
| Carey Rockwell | Treachery in Outer Space | 1954 | Space Marines | |
| Carey Rockwell | Sabotage in Space | 1955 | Space Marines | |
| G. Harry Stine | Rocket Man | 1955 | Space Marines | |
| Eric Frank Russell | "The Waitabits" | 1955 | Space-Marines | |
| Randall Garrett | "Needler" | 1957 | Space Marines | |
| Eric Frank Russell | Wasp | 1957 | Space Marines (Sirian Combine) | |
| Robert F. Young | "Passage to Gomorrah" | 1959 | Space Marines | |
| Robert A. Heinlein | Starship Troopers | 1959 | Mobile Infantry | |
| Kenneth Bulmer | "Of Earth Foretold" | 1960 | Space Marine | |
| Kenneth Bulmer | "Earth's Long Shadow" | 1960 | Space Marine | |
| Harry Harrison | The Stainless Steel Rat | 1961 | Space Marines | |
| Andre Norton | Star Hunter | 1961 | Space Marines | |
| H. Beam Piper | Little Fuzzy | 1962 | Space Marines | |
| H. Beam Piper | The Cosmic Computer | 1963 | Space Marines | |
| Frank Herbert | Dune | 1965 | Sardaukar | |
| Joe Haldeman | The Forever War | 1974 | United Nations Exploratory Force (UNEF) | |
| Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | The Mote in God's Eye and related novels | 1975 | Imperial Marines | |
| Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling | The Prince or Falkenberg's Legion series | 1976–1993; 2002 | CoDominium Marines | |
| Orson Scott Card | Ender's Game | 1985 | Marines | |
| David Weber | Starfire series | 1990–present | Federation Navy Marine Corps | |
| David Weber | Honor Harrington series | 1992–present | Royal Manticoran Marine Corps (RMMC) of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, et cetera | |
| David Sherman and Dan Cragg | StarFist series | 1997–present | Confederation Marine Corps | |
| Ian Douglas | 1998–present | United States Marines Corps, United Star Marine Corps | ||
| R. J. Pineiro | "Flight of Endeavour" | 2001 | United Nations Security Council Space Marines | |
| John Ringo |
| 2005–present | Allied Space Marines | |
| John Varley | Rolling Thunder | 2008 | Martian Naval Corps | |
| James S. A. Corey | The Expanse series | 2011–2022 | Martian Marine Corps and United Nations Marine Corps | |
| M.C.A. Hogarth | Spots the Space Marine | 2012 | Space Marine |
| Director | Title | Year(s) published | Unit name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael E. Briant | Doctor Who serial "Death to the Daleks" | 1973–1974 | Marine Space Corps | |
| George Lucas | Star Wars | 1977–present | Galactic Marines of the Grand Army of the Republic, originally known as the 21st Nova Corps. The Rebel Alliance has an entire regiment of Space Operations, nicknamed "Rebel Marines". Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers also fit the space marine trope. | |
| Lewis Gilbert | Moonraker | 1979 | United States Marine Corps on a space shuttle armed with lasers | |
| Leiji Matsumoto | Star Blazers | 1979–1984 | Ground combat units found on the 11th planet are known as "Space Marines" | |
| James Cameron | Aliens | 1986 | United States Colonial Marine Corps | |
| Jeff Segal | Exosquad | 1993–1994 | Exofleet Jumptroops | |
| Douglas Netter and J. Michael Straczynski | Babylon 5 | 1994–1998 | EarthForce Marine Corps (also known as "Gropos" or "GROund POunderS") | |
| Glen Morgan and James Wong | 1995–1996 | United States Marine Corps Space Aviator Cavalry | ||
| John Weidner | Space Marines | 1996 | United Planets Marines | |
| Keiji Gotoh | Kiddy Grade | 2001–2002 | GOTT Marine Corps | |
| Allan Kroeker, David Straiton, et al. | 2003–2005 | Military Assault Command Operations (MACO) | ||
| David Eick and Ronald D. Moore | Battlestar Galactica | 2004–2009 | Colonial Marine Corps, Colonial Marine Corps Reserve | |
| Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper | Stargate Atlantis | 2004–2009 | United States Marine Corps attached to the Atlantis Expedition | |
| James Cameron | Avatar | 2009 | Former Marines and mercenaries working with the RDA Corporation on Pandora. | |
| Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby | The Expanse (TV series) | 2015–2022 | Martian Marine Corps and United Nations Marine Corps | |
| Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi | For All Mankind | 2021 | United States Moon Marines, members of the USMC who are an astronaut security and tactical force on the moon. | |
| Dylan Shipley | Hammer and Bolter animated series | 2022 | Imperial Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000.[3] |
| Title | Publisher | Game type | Year(s) published | Unit name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starship Troopers | Avalon Hill | Board wargame | 1976 | Mobile Infantry | |
| Traveller | Game Designers' Workshop | Role-playing game | 1977 | Star Marines, Terran Confederation Marine Corps, Imperial Marine Force, Solomani Marine Corps, and Zhodani Consular Guard | |
| Space Marines | Fantac/Fantasy Games Unlimited | Wargaming | 1977/1980 | Terran UnionGuard Heavy Infantry, Azuriach Heavy Infantry | |
| Starfire series | Task Force Games
| Board wargame | 1979–present | Federation Navy Marine Corps | |
| Space Marines | Asgard Miniatures | Science Fiction Miniature Line | 1982–present | Space Marine/Space Trooper. The miniatures in this line were created for use with Laserburn and are currently available through Alternative Armies | |
| Star Frontiers | TSR, Inc. | Role-playing game | 1982–1985 | Space Marine. The career name for NPCs with a focus in beam weapons. | |
| Metroid series | Action-adventure game | 1986–present | Galactic Federation Marine Corps/07th Platoon | ||
| Princess Ryan's Space Marines | 1/285 Scale Tabletop Miniatures Game | 1986 | Princess Ryan's Space Marines | ||
| Warhammer 40,000 series | Games Workshop | Miniature wargaming | 1987–present | Adeptus Astartes (Imperial Space Marine) Chapters, and also, to an extent, Chaos Space Marines. | |
| Wing Commander franchise | Origin Systems, Inc. | Space combat simulation | 1990–1999 | Terran Confederation Marine Corps | |
| Duke Nukem series | 3D Realms | First-person shooter | 1991–present | Earth Defense Forces (EDF) | |
| Doom series | id software | First-person shooter | 1993–present | ||
| Marathon series | Bungie | First-person shooter | 1994–present | UESC (Unified Earth Space Council) Marines | |
| Quake series | id software | First-person shooter | 1996–present | SMC (Space Marine Corps) Marines, GDF (Global Defence Force) | |
| Unreal series | Epic Games | First-person shooter | 1998–present | UMS (Unified Military Services) | |
| Outwars | Microsoft | Third-person shooter | 1998 | Colonial Marines | |
| Battlezone | Activision | first-person shooter | 1998 | National Space Defense Force (NSDF), Cosmos Colonist Army/Communist Cosmonaut Army (CCA), Chinese Red Army (CRA), International Space Defence Force (ISDF) | |
| StarCraft series | Blizzard Entertainment | Real-time strategy | 1998–present | Confederate Marine Corps, the Dominion Marine Corps, the Alliance Marine Corps, the Alpha Corps, the United Earth Directorate Powered Infantry and numerous more | |
| Ground Control | Sierra On-Line | Real-time tactics | 2000 | Crayven Corporation's Marines | |
| Halo series | Xbox Game Studios | First-person shooter; Real-time strategy | 2001–present | United Nations Space Command Marine Corps and the elite Orbital Drop Shock Trooper divisions (special forces qualified for drop pod insertion). | |
| Red Faction series | THQ | First-person shooter; Third-person shooter | 2001–present | Earth Defence Marine Corps (E.D.M.C.) and Earth Naval Guard (E.N.G.) | |
| Natural Selection | Unknown Worlds Entertainment | First-person shooter; Real-time strategy | 2002–2007 | Frontiersmen (human space marines) | |
| TimeSplitters 2 | Eidos Interactive | First-person shooter | 2002 | Space Marines (Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart) | |
| Killzone series | SCEE | First-person shooter | 2003–present | Interplanetary Strategic Alliance Marines | |
| Electronic Arts | First-person shooter | 2005 | Space Marines (Sergeant Cortez) (This got changed during scripting as it was pointed out that Space Marine might infringe on Games Workshop name.) | ||
| Mass Effect series | Microsoft Game Studios; Electronic Arts | Action role-playing game
| 2007–present | designated personnel of the Systems Alliance Navy (no branch independence) | |
| Dead Space series | Electronic Arts | Survival horror
| 2008–present | USM Marine Corps (a branch of the Earth Defense Force) | |
| Turok | Touchstone Interactive | Action game
| 2008 | Marines (also referred to as Commandos) | |
| D3 Publisher | Action game; Third-person shooter | 2009 | Space Marines | ||
| Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta | Bethesda | Role playing game; First-person shooter | 2009 | American army medic Eliot Tecorian and the two surviving members of his squad are abducted by aliens, and assist the Vault Dweller in hijacking the spaceship. The player can also equip themself with pre-war power armor similar in appearance to the Marauder armor worn by the Mobile Infantry. | |
| Alien Swarm | Valve | Action game | 2010 | Space Marines – the game can be single player or 4 players co-op. There are 4 classes with 2 characters for each class: Officer, Special Weapons, Medic and Tech. | |
| Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon | Slitherine | Turn-based strategy | 2014 | Space Marines | |
| Bethesda | Action-adventure, first-person shooter | 2014 | Weltraumsoldaten, Weltraummarinesoldaten | ||
| Helldivers | Arrowhead Game Studios | First-person shooter, Shoot'em up | 2015–present | Helldivers, Super Earth Defense Force | |
| Bombshell | 3D Realms | multidirectional shooter | 2016 | Global Defence Force (GDF) | |
| The Outer Worlds | Obsidian Entertainment | First-person shooter, Role-playing video game | 2019 | Mardets, short for Marine Detachment. |