Whatever Happened To Data From The Goonies?

Among the plethora of classics from the 1980s that still get revisited, few hit the standard of being an absolute treasure as "The Goonies," the adventure film that saw a group of kids head off in search of gold to save their homes from being demolished. Since 1985, "The Goonies" have always been good enough, never losing their original charm thanks to the late Richard Donner's direction and a stellar kid cast at its core. One standout member of the gang was the legendary Data, whose gadget obsession and  bright yellow bag of tricks got his friends out of various scrapes, albeit through occasional malfunctioning issues.

But just what happened to the tech-savvy support in Mikey's gang of treasure seekers, and can we expect to see him returning to the big screen soon? Well, strap on your slick shoes ("slick shoes? Are you crazy?!") as after compiling the relevant data on Data, we've found out where the young star has been and, most importantly, where he's headed next.

Following his one-two punch of box-office breaking success with not only "The Goonies" but "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" the year before, Ke Huy Quan, who played Data, went on to make sporadic appearances in both film and television. After saving the Goondocks, Quan appeared in the 1986 television sitcom "Together We Stand," starring alongside Elliot Gould and "E.T.'s" Dee Wallace, as their adopted son Sam. The show ran for 13 episodes before CBS canceled it. Years later in 1990, he was in time for the school bell ringing for "Head of the Class," appearing in 27 episodes as Jasper Kwong, before that show eventually came to a close as well in 1991.

From there, it was only following a bit part on Brendan Fraser's career-making "Encino Man" that Quan returned to Hollywood before a lengthy hiatus. His career sent him on a trajectory behind the camera instead of in front, working as a stunt co-ordinator on Jet Li's reality-hopping action movie "The One," as well as one of the pioneering comic book movie blockbusters, "X-Men" back when no one really knew much about that Hugh Jackman fella. It feels almost fated then that Quan's career has had a recent jolt in a project that combined elements from both those films, in a movie that is earning critical acclaim from every dimension it ends up in.

In a comeback for the ages, Quan is returning to theatres with an impressive cast in an absolutely wild sci-fi film from the collective minds behind "Swiss Army Man." Directed by the Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), "Everything, Everywhere All At Once" stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, a woman that makes the shocking discovery that there are multiple realities, all of which see her living a number of wild lives. Quan plays her husband, including a version of one that asks for her help in an epic journey across dimensions that comes with googley eyes and uncontrollable sausage fingers. Incredibly, it was his on-screen wife that led him back to acting before they'd even met.

Speaking to IGN, the former Goonie revealed, "it wasn't until 2018, a little movie from Warner Bros. came out called 'Crazy Rich Asians.' I saw that movie and it hit me on so many levels and I was really emotional about and the idea of returning to acting started percolating in my head." From here, Quan made the bold move of asking an old agent friend to rep him, and within two weeks he landed a part opposite one of his new favorite film's stars, in this head trip of head trips. Thankfully, he's not stopping there either, because just as soon as he's done venturing through the multiverse, he'll be headed over to Disney+ for an epic comic book adaptation. 

Having already shared the screen with Michelle Yeoh in the awesome looking multiverse movie, he's also going to be appearing alongside her (kind of) in the epic tale of gods and monsters, "American Born Chinese." Based on the Eisner-award-winning comic book series of the same name, the show that began filming in February tells the story of Jin Wang (Ben Wang), who, after meeting a foreign exchange student at school, is sent on a coming-of-age story for the ages — one that sees him square off against Chinese mythological gods, and in turn find his place in a world he's struggled to belong in.

Already boasting an incredible cast comprised of Yeoh and "Into the Badlands" star Daniel Wu, Quan will be appearing in a slightly different realm to the one Jin will be in, appearing as Freddie Wong, a fictional character from a TV sitcom from the 1990s. It's another wild and wonderful sounding appearance for Quan to make in his unexpected comeback on screen and hopefully the first of many. While there's no confirmed release date as of yet for "American Born Chinese," you can get a look at "Everything, Everywhere All At Once" in theatres on March 25.