NEED TO KNOW
- Goonies star Josh Brolin told Entertainment Tonight why he has some “trepidation” about a potential sequel to the 1985 classic
- “I don’t wanna taint my memory of it,” said the Weapons actor, who played Brand in The Goonies
- He also said there have been “five scripts so far through the years,” and original story writer and co-producer Steven Spielberg “hasn’t approved anything yet”
Goonies may never say die, but Josh Brolin is okay with leaving the past in the past.
The actor, who played Brandon “Brand” Walsh in 1985’s The Goonies, recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight amid the premiere of his new movie Weapons, and revealed he was hesitant to fully embrace the idea of a sequel to the classic adventure film.
“Of course you hope it [happens] — I hope it does, because the experience was so great [and] the movie is received so well generation after generation,” said Brolin, 57. “Everything good about it.”
But on the flip slide, the “trepidation” he has about a follow-up “is that you release something else that taints” what the original represented. “I don’t want to taint my memory of it,” added the Avengers: Endgame actor.
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Brolin went on to joke that there’s no telling what he and the other Goonies would be up for in a sequel, but he wouldn’t be excited for a storyline that followed the group as they “grew up and they came out with their walkers and then they fell off a cliff because they couldn’t see very well.”
“I don’t know! Maybe it could be great. If it’s great, you’ll know,” he continued. “Like, if [original story writer and co-producer Steven Spielberg] approves it, you know it’s gonna be good. But I think there’s been five scripts so far through the years, and he hasn’t approved anything yet.”
“So me being picky, Spielberg is picky — and he has a reason to be, ’cause he has great taste,” added Brolin of the three-time Oscar-winning director, 78.
Directed by Richard Donner from a script by Chris Columbus, The Goonies follows a group of misfit tweens led by Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin) as they descend underground, following a map in a search for answers in the legend of the pirate One-Eyed Willy.
Brolin played Mikey’s older brother, Brand, while the main cast also included Corey Feldman, Ke Huy Quan, Jeff Cohen, Martha Plimpton and Kerri Green.
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The cast has reunited multiple times in the recent past, including in February at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles for the premiere of Quan and Astin’s film Love Hurts.
While in attendance, both Feldman and Quan suggested they’re interested in a sequel to The Goonies, which marked its 40th anniversary in June.
“It’s one of the most-asked questions in my life,” Quan, 53, told Variety at the time, addressing the long-running sequel talk. “I would love for it to happen.”
Feldman, 54, told the outlet he and Astin, 54, had worked on developing a Goonies sequel about a decade ago, but original director Donner, who died in 2021 at age 91, deemed it “too expensive.”
“He’s like, ‘I want to make it small. I want to make it about the characters — more of a film about these people and where they are now,’ ” the Lost Boys star recalled of Donner’s response. “I was like, ‘Okay, all right. Well, there you go. … you’re the boss.’ ”
