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Filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg gave a talk at the TCM Classic Film Festival in New York about his stubborn decision to deny a sequel to his much-adored 1982 masterpiece, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg opposed any attempts for continuation despite monumental success in order to maintain its singular quality and keep magic alive.
1982’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time, until Spielberg’s very own Jurassic Park topped its record in 1993. But Spielberg said the studio had first asked him for a sequel. “That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights,” he said during the festival. 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.
Spielberg briefly flirted with the idea of a follow-up, brainstorming concepts with screenwriter Melissa Mathison. One of these involved a decidedly darker storyline for E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, wherein Elliott and his friends were going to be kidnapped by “mean” aliens only to be later rescued by E.T. Another involved a book called The Green Planet about E.T.’s home planet of origin. At some point, Spielberg did eventually scrap these concepts altogether. “I just did not want to make a sequel,” he explained. It would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity.
The director's resolve to let E.T. be echoed Drew Barrymore, who played Gertie in the movie. At the reunion, she remembered how Spielberg informed her when she was eight years old that there would never be a sequel. “I thought it was a smart choice,” she explained. “Where do we go from here? They’re just going to compare it to the first and leave something that’s perfect alone in isolation open to scrutiny.”
Spielbeg’s call here is one of respect to E.T.’s timelessness and to maintain its continuity as a one-time masterpiece of the ages. He has said, “I have no intention ever of seeing E.T. anywhere outside this proscenium.”
This pledge means that E.T. stays cherished and classic without superfluous sequels popping out, being an example of Spielberg’s integrity to his craft.
