Why The Goonies 2 Never Happened

As far as beloved family adventure movies go, “The Goonies” still holds up some 40 years after it arrived on the scene, becoming one of the best kids movies ever made. The classic Richard Donner-directed 1985 film, which follows a group of kids on a treasure hunt to save their neighborhood from being torn down, is as integral to some fans’ childhoods as “ET: The Extra Terrestrial” or “The NeverEnding Story” (ie. other films where absolutely nothing emotionally scarring happens). It also helped make stars out of the likes of Corey Feldman, Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, and Ke Huy Quan, and features a killer Cyndi Lauper song to boot.

Like so many other revered ’80s hits that audiences keep going back to for a dose of nostalgia, however, “The Goonies” has yet to receive a proper followup. By this point, it’s safe to say “The Goonies 2” would likely take the form of a legacy sequel, complete with nods to the original film, the returning cast looking much older, and a new generation of heroes to potentially carry the torch forward. Well, while that might seem like an idea fans could warm up to, they’d be better off tempering those expectations. In truth, “The Goonies 2” has been stuck in the will-they, won’t-they phase for decades … and as far as the stars of Donner’s movie are concerned, the Goonies may never say “die,” but at this point perhaps it’s time that talk of a sequel did.

Trying to get clarification on whether “The Goonies 2” could ever actually happen is a little like trying to maneuver through a series of underground tunnels to locate One-Eyed Willy’s rich stuff. Before his passing, Donner said in numerous interviews that attempts had indeed been made to go back to the Goon Docks in a new installment but that not every actor on board. “We tried really hard. [Executive producer] Steven [Spielberg] and I, we pitched a couple of things to them and, quite honestly, they weren’t right,” Donner told IGN in 2006. “And we put it aside. If I could ever find a really good handle on a screenplay for it, I’d go pitch it again, because talking about [something] I’d want to see. […] It’s extraordinary. But it’s got to be right, or don’t do it, because I couldn’t believe that movie.”

By 2020, Steven Spielberg — who also cracked the story for “The Goonies” in addition to serving as an executive producer on the film — didn’t have much to add to that. “[‘Goonies’ screenwriter] Chris [Columbus], Dick, and I […] have had a lot of conversations about it,” the legendary director explained on Josh Gad’s “Reunited Apart” at the time. “Every couple of years we come up with an idea, but then it doesn’t hold water.” Sadly, only a year after that, Donner passed away, leaving behind an incredible body of work and a space for the sequel that few would dare to fill. However, as rightfully put by one of the original Goonies, who would even want to see it, anyway?

Even after Donner’s death, murmurs of a sequel to “The Goonies” have continued as recently as 2024, with Martha Plimpton, who played Stef in the original film, taking to Instagram to debunk a report from The Sun that a sequel was gearing up to start filming in 2025. Bursting the bubble for fans around the world, Plimpton simply wrote, “People, there is no ‘Goonies 2’ script, there is no one ‘attached,’ Spielberg is not directing. It’s not real.” It might not be the news fans wanted to hear, but in the eyes of the oldest Goonie, Josh Brolin, perhaps that’s a good thing.

When asked about a “Goonies” sequel during a March 2024 interview with Yahoo!, the “Dune” star — who played Astin’s onscreen older brother in Donner’s original movie — had a blunt response. “Personally, why? Do you know what I mean? I don’t like it,” he admitted. “The movie exists in a really wonderful way, generation after generation I get to see that.” Even after all these years, Brolin cherishes the place “The Goonies” holds in the hearts of audiences and has no desire to taint that. “I mean, it’s such a wonderful thing that exists that you get to see affect people, and why do you need to weigh it out with something else? Tell me, what would it be like?” he added. And if you really want an answer to that, technically all you need to do is fire up an old Nintendo Entertainment System to find out.

While some fans might still be holding out hope that we’ll be dusting off our treasure maps and practicing our piano playing for a cinematic “Goonies” sequel in the foreseeable future, there’s already a “Goonies” video game followup titled “The Goonies II: The Fratellis’ Last Stand.” Released for the NES in 1987 and developed by Konami, “The Goonies II” not only reunited us with Mikey and his pals, but it was also one of the first-ever exploration platform games.

While it might be rather dated nowadays, the game does feature a plot that sees MIkey going it alone after the rest of the Goonies are kidnapped by the Fratellis following another prison break. Over the course of the game, Mikey gradually rescues the other members of the Goonies one by one, along with a mermaid named Annie that the Fratellis had also bagged (because of course they did).

Suffice it to say, were a movie sequel to “The Goonies” ever to happen, it would have to be dramatically different from “The Goonies II.” But between Donner passing away and even members of the original “Goonies” cast speaking out against the idea of returning to the Goon Docks, the closest thing we might eventually get to another “Goonies” film would be a related project on Disney+ (one that, much like “The Goonies 2,” also has yet to get fully off the ground).

In 2021, Disney+ snagged the rights to a new show about a group of kids who film a shot-for-shot remake of “The Goonies,” The series, titled “Our Time” (which references Mike’s legendary speech about whether the Goonies should push on with their adventure or abandon their dreams of saving their homes), would specifically focus on a school teacher who, after returning home, helps a trio of kids remake their favorite movie (“The Goonies,” naturally). It’s a project that would almost certainly garner the attention of “Goonies” fans … assuming it ever actually gets going, that is.

Prior to Disney getting its oversized mouse-shaped mitts on it, “Our Time” was initially developed as a pilot for Fox in 2020 before making the move to Disney+ after Fox decided it skewed too young for its purposes. Since then, however, there’ve been little to nothing in the way of further updates to report on. That’s not too surprising at this stage, either, given Disney’s hit and miss track record when it comes to nostalgia-heavy originals for its streaming service. After all, the House of Mouse invested a whole lot of money into making a “Willow” legacy sequel series for Disney+, only to swiftly cancel the show after a single season and remove it from the streaming service entirely.

There’s also another and perhaps more glaring issue — namely, any attempt to continue the “Goonies” franchise directly would have to deal with heavy competition from the spiritual descendants of Donner’s film that’ve popped up in recent years.

Nowadays, there are numerous films and TV shows that’ve done a bang-up job tapping into the spirit of childhood adventure that “The Goonies” embodied. Streaming series like “Stranger Things” and “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” similarly evoke the memory of Mikey and his gang tearing down a street on their bikes with their own imagery of kids facing danger and setting off for destinations unknown. It’s not unintentional, either. In the case of “Skeleton Crew,” creators/showrunners Jon Watts and Christopher Ford have confessed that they even tried to get actors from “The Goonies” to make the trip to a galaxy far, far away for their own family-friendly story about a group of youngsters who leave their home behind in search of adventure.

“We had talked about that as an overall casting idea potentially, where it’s like, should we find some kids that were in those movies and now cast them as some adult characters?” as Watts previously revealed to ComicBook. “But it wasn’t enough to really carry through. But no, there’s definitely an opportunity there.” Of course, even if they did, this sort of signing was already accomplished over in Hawkins with “Stranger Things” when Astin joined the series as Bob Newby, the brief and incredibly brave boyfriend of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and a knight in a shining yellow raincoat just like his younger hero. It’s through these moments and homages that we’ve already gotten to enjoy plenty of revisits to the Goon Docks in some way or another, even without an actual “Goonies” sequel.