Steven Spielberg says don’t get your hopes up for a sequel to The Goonies

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

THE GOONIES came out thirty-five years ago, but fans have been eager for more adventures from the treasure-hunting youngsters, which has led to plenty of speculation regarding a potential sequel. The members of the cast, including Sean Astin and Corey Feldman, have all commented on the possibility of a sequel to THE GOONIES over the decades, but it just doesn't seem as though the film will ever materialize.

Josh Gad recently launched a new web-series, Reunited Apart, and the focus of the first episode was THE GOONIES. Director Richard Donner, screenwriter Chris Columbus, and executive producer Steven Spielberg reunited remotely for the show, and when the topic of a sequel was brought up, Spielberg had some words of caution for fans who are holding out hope for another installment.

Chris [Columbus, The Goonies screenwriter], Dick, and I — and Lauren [Shuler Donner] — have had a lot of conversations about it. Every couple of years we come up with an idea but then it doesn’t hold water. Until we do, people are just going to have to look at this [livestream] a hundred times!

While the chances of a sequel look slim, it is interesting that they're still kicking around ideas from time to time, so I suppose we should never say never. Recapturing that lightening in a bottle would certainly be difficult, and Richard Donner joked, "How are you going to find seven miserable kids like this again that are new and fresh?" Cast members of THE GOONIES, including Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, Ke Huy Quan, Martha Plimpton, Josh Brolin, Joe Pantoliano, and Kerri Green, took part in the reunion for a stroll down memory lane, which raised funds for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy in support of their COVID-19 Response Fund. Unless they come up with something very good, I'm not one of those people who desperately want a GOONIES sequel; just let it be.

Although we may not see a sequel to THE GOONIES anytime soon, the film will be headed to television in the form of a meta-series which will find a group of young kids re-enacting THE GOONIEs with the help of their teacher. Fox ordered a pilot for the project in February from The Bold Type creator Sarah Watson which follows a woman named Stella Cooper who returns to her distressed automotive hometown to substitute teach after failing to make it in New York and carrying a heavy secret. Once there, Stella finds "inspiration, hope, and ultimately salvation when she agrees to help three students who are pursuing their film-making dreams by putting on an impossibly ambitious shot-for-shot remake of one of the student’s favorite movies, THE GOONIES." Over the course of the season, the students passion for the film will inspire a town in desperate need of hope in a love letter to the power of cinema, storytelling and dreams.