Steven Spielberg revealed in a recent interview how he’s fought to keep E.T. The Extraterrestrial from ever appearing in a sequel and why he never plans to make one himself, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Participating in a TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY discussion panel with Drew Barrymore, who played the character of Gertie in the 1982 film, the filmmaker discussed how, at the time of its making, he initially didn’t have the power to stop a sequel from being greenlit:
“I kind of didn’t have what we call ‘the freeze,’ where you can stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes, and other ancillary uses of the IP…I got it after E.T. because of its success.”
Spielberg also touched on why he doesn’t want to make a sequel himself, saying that he just hasn’t been able to think of a story to warrant it:
“…The only thing I could think about was a book that was written by somebody…called The Green Planet, which was all going to take place at E.T.’s home…We were all going to be able to go to E.T.’s home and see how E.T. lived. But it was better as a novel than I think it would have been as a film.”
The sci-fi family adventure about a lost alien who helps bring a broken family back together while trying to return to its own family was also a personal project for Spielberg, reflecting on and expressing his feelings on his turbulent childhood:
“I simply wanted to get this thing through my system and out into my world. It didn’t have to be in your world; I just wanted to make the movie for me.”
Despite the unlikelihood of a return to the big screen, E.T. did appear on the small screen, reuniting with Henry Thomas’s Elliott in a holiday-themed Comcast commercial in 2019, with Spielberg’s blessing and consultation.
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