The Goonies executive producer and story writer Steven Spielberg says a long wished for sequel hasn’t happened because ideas for a 35-years-later followup never “hold water.” Spielberg on Monday participated in the Josh Gad-hosted Reunited Apart, a virtual reunion benefiting COVID-19 relief by bringing together original Goonies stars Sean Astin (Mikey), Corey Feldman (Mouth), Jeff Cohen (Chunk), Ke Huy Quan (Data), Martha Plimpton (Stef), Kerri Green (Andy), Josh Brolin (Brand), and Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi (the Fratelli brothers), with appearances from director Richard Donner, screenwriter Chris Columbus, and Cyndi Lauper, who performed original theme song “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
“Chris and Dick and I and Lauren [Shuler Donner] have had a lot of conversations about it, and every couple of years we come up with an idea, but then it doesn’t hold water,” Spielberg said over video chat in the reunion hosted on YouTube. “The problem is the bar that all of you raised on this genre. I don’t think we’ve really successfully been able to find an idea that is better than The Goonies we made in the ’80s.”
“So until we do, people are just gonna have to look at this a hundred times,” Spielberg said with a laugh about the cast’s reunion over Zoom. Added Donner, “How are you gonna find seven miserable kids like this again that are all new and fresh?”
Astin and Feldman previously revealed they “came up with what we thought the fans would really want to see from a sequel,” describing their rejected pitch for Goonies 2 at FAN EXPO Boston in September:
“Dick got really excited, and his eyes got really big, and he looked like he was loving it,” Feldman recalled of a pitch meeting with Donner and representatives for Spielberg and Columbus. “‘We got him, he’s in, he loves it!’ And then all of a sudden, halfway through, he just opens his eyes again and he goes, ‘Too expensive.’ And we’re like, what? And he’s like, ‘Too expensive, I want to go smaller.’”
According to Feldman, Donner wanted to “follow more of the family, where are they today, and keeping it more quaint.”
“I’m like, ‘This is Goonies 2! How do you [go smaller]?’” Feldman said. “‘But okay, you’re the man.’”
Added Astin: “He’s like, ‘It has to really be able to happen.’ I’m like, exactly. The point is that all the cast have always said, all along, we’d all be happy to participate if they want us to.” Astin then said it “feels more probable now that [another film will be] a straight reboot with maybe a couple of cameos.”
“But who knows,” Astin continued. “The audience wants it. I’m shocked that they haven’t been given it.”
Astin earlier revealed his story idea for Goonies 2, which would have included a sequence depicting legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy in the middle of battle.
