Recent reports from the New York Post, cinema bloggers, and British tabloids cite an anonymous source stating that a sequel to “The Goonies,” a 1985 adventure film, has been greenlit for production and will be released by 2026.
This isn’t the first time that reports surfaced about a sequel to the original film, which was directed by the late Richard Donner and produced under Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Entertainment. Fan-fueled reports and rumors have circulated the internet since the 2010s, when members of the original cast, including Sean Astin, vocalized their interest in a sequel.
As an “X-ennial”, those of us who were born in the analog age and came of age when the internet expanded into mainstream culture, I’ve seen too many franchises ruin their overall reputation through too many installments.
I believe that Hollywood should leave certain franchises alone. While it would be interesting for Kerri Green and Jeff Cohen to return to the big screen, the fan service couldn’t ever replace the inspiration for adventure that the original sparked in the minds of countless youth since it debuted nearly 40 years ago.
The passing of Donner in 2021 left Spielberg as the most likely heir to direct and produce a second Goonies film, but Spielberg is tough to predict regarding intellectual property and iconic franchises. Spielberg worked with Bob Gayle and Robert Zemeckis on the Back to the Future trilogy, and the three of them have fought any effort to reboot the franchise.
(Side note: Zemeckis wasn’t as protective of a sequel to Forrest Gump, but his planned meeting with studio executives was canceled because it was scheduled for the week of Sept.11, 2001.)
Spielberg said he had no interest in any of the sequels to his original blockbuster, “JAWS“, (other than a Quint-centered script that he had to shelve in order to make “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”), but he assisted in the production of sequels for the franchises of Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park.
Our imaginations can fill in the blanks for how the life of each Goonie played-out. Goonies never say die, but the studio executives should say die to any production of a sequel. Many fans are already expressing their fears over a sequel ruining the lore of the original. To quote Cyndi Lauper’s hit single that made the film’s soundtrack a hit, “The Goonies are good enough”, not to need a sequel.
- Authored by Matt O’Hern
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