“From the beginning, when [Astin] said yes to play Cliff, we were just thinking, ‘Okay, how do we give a little nod to all those incredible Goonies fans?'” Quan tells Entertainment Weekly a few days before the film’s Feb. 7 premiere. “That was our little Easter egg. Because over the years, the most asked question [we get is], ‘Will we ever have a Goonies sequel?'” 

Quan does not know if a sequel will ever materialize, “but if Goonies fans are looking for a little nostalgia or a trip down memory lane,” look no further than his scenes with Astin in the movie, he says. “It’s real,” Quan adds of that bond, calling Astin his “Goonies brother for life.” “It was incredible to be able to share the screen with him after 40 years,” he adds. “All of a sudden, I was just a kid back on the set of The Goonies.”

“You can clearly see I’m emotional” in their scene together, Quan notes. “I just could not believe that I got to act with Sean again.” There was also a third Goonie on set that day: Jeff Cohen, best known for his role as Chunk and now an entertainment attorney who represents Quan. (It was Cohen who helped Quan ink the deal to star in his celebrated comeback film Everything Everywhere All At Once.) “He was at the monitor watching,” Quan recalls.

The Goonies reunion would extend to Quan’s hand-and-footprint ceremony at the famed TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on Monday morning in celebration of Love Hurts, then again that same evening for the movie’s premiere. Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, and Josh Brolin were on hand to support their Goonies brother that morning, while Astin would later join his costars that evening for the premiere.

Love Hurts is in theaters now.