Why Steven Spielberg Changed His Mind About Making An ‘E.T.’ Sequel

Lauren Novak January 28, 1:01 pm

E.T., Henry Thomas, 1982 — Everett Collection

Steven Spielberg and Drew Barrymore recently had a mini E.T. reunion at the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up  x  92NY, which raised a question many of us have had: When E.T. was released in 1982, it became the highest-grossing movie of all time … so why wasn’t there a sequel? At the event, Spielberg revealed that he once thought about making a sequel, but ultimately decided against it — and even stopped the studio from making one.

Spielberg explained, “I just did not want to make a sequel. I flirted with it for a little bit – just a little bit to see if I [could] think of a story – and the only thing I could think about was a book that was written by [William Kotzwinkle] 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.”

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Kotzwinkle, who also wrote the novelization of the original film, wrote The Book of the Green Planet, which followed E.T. after he returned to his home planet. While there, he continues to observe Elliott grow up, while discovering his home planet is not quite as he remembered it.

Spielberg added, “That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights. Before ‘E.T.,’ I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights. 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 didn’t have that. I got it after ‘E.T.’ because of its success.”

E.T., Henry Thomas, C. Thomas Howell, E. T., 1982, from 2002 re-release.

Everett Collection

While Spielberg never made that sequel based on The Book of the Green Planet, he did help create a ride at Universal Studios Florida called E.T. Adventure in 1990, which flies riders with E.T. to his home planet, where you meet a bunch of different creatures. Now, it is one of the only remaining ’90s rides left at the theme park, as most have been torn down and replaced with more modern attractions.

Tell us, have you gone on that ride? Would you have liked to see an E.T. sequel?