Summary
Before Steven Spielberg releasedE.T. the Extra Terrestrialin 1982, George Lucas was blowing up the scene with the release of the first twoStar Warsmovies:A New HopeandThe Empire Strikes Back. Following their individual successes, the two directors decided to collaborate with their own joint film franchise:Indiana Jones.
Both theStar Warsfilms andE.T.deal with the vast universe that is home to thousands, if not millions, of other-worldly lifeforms. Some might say that it’s no wonder that ET and his people would appear in theStar Warsuniverse. But it’s not often that characters from completely different cinematic universes appear together in the same story.
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ET’s cameo inStar Warsis a testament to two great directors showing their appreciation for one another through both their friendship and mutual recognition of each other’s filmmaking talents. Even though it was a small cameo, it made room for fans and non-canonical authors to expand on the role of ET’s people in theStar Warsuniverse.
When Does ET Appear in Star Wars?
Although the first threeStar Warsmovies (episodes IV, V, and VI) andE.T.all came out over the course of six years(1977-83), it was almost another twenty years before Spielberg’s homesick little alien made his cameo in Lucas' universe of Jedi and droids. On the flip side,Star Warstakes place “a long time ago,”, so perhaps Spielberg’s 1982 classic takes place years after the events ofStar Wars.
ET, or rather his people, made theirStar Warscameo in 1999 inEpisode I of the franchise,The Phantom Menace. A group of three ET-looking aliens, dubbed the Asogian people, can be seen briefly during the scene in which Queen Amidala of Naboo questions the integrity of the Galactic Senate Chancellor Finis Valorum, and calls for a vote of no confidence. After panning across the Grand Convocation Chamber and seeing the mixed reactions of all the members of the Galactic Senate, there’s about a three-second window where the Asogian people can be seen flailing their arms about. It’s unclear whether they support or oppose Amidala’s request.
Although this is the only time the Asogian are seen on screen in theStar Warsuniverse, the cameo made way for other storytelling modes to explore their role in theStar Warslore. For example, just a year after the release ofReturn of the Jedi, the 89th issue of theStar WarsLegendscomic book series(Star Wars 89) told the story of an Asogian named Braxas, who fled his home world with Luke Skywalker after the Galactic Empire took control.
The Asogian have made a few other appearances — mostly inStar Wars Legends— but they were all wiped from the canonical storyline ofStar Warsafter Lucasfilms was bought by Disney. However, for some fans, this isn’t enough to erase their role from the plot, since it wasn’t a particularly huge role to begin with.
Why ET Was Included in Star Wars
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg built a strong professional relationship throughout the 1980s, having collaborated on theIndiana Jonesfranchise. As a way to pay homage to each other, they both decided to include cameos of each other’s cinematic works within their own film. ET’sThe Phantom Menacecameo was actually the last appearance made.
The first cameo was made in 1981in the first Indiana Jones movie,Raiders of the Lost Ark. While Indy is in an ancient temple, R2D2 and C3PO can be seen engraved in a pillar as part of Egyptian hieroglyphs. AnotherStar Warscameo was made inIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where the bar Indy attends is named “Club Obi Wan,” a tribute to the great Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Spielberg then took it a step further and had aStar Warscameo inE.T.When ET is dressed up for Halloween and is following Elliot around trick-or-treating, someone dressed as Yoda distracts the little alien, with ET thinking the child in the costume is actually an alien. ET then repeats the word “home” and tries following the Yoda kid before Elliot pulls him back.
At the time, it was just a funny scene with a pop culture reference. But looking back, it could actually be taken as confirmation of the Asogian’s existence in theStar Warsstory. ET recognizes the costume as not only looking like another alien,but as Yoda himself, whom ET may have either known or heard stories about. Lucas and Spielberg went on to collaborate for the next twoIndiana Jonesfilms, but didn’t have any more cross-cinematic-universe cameos.
After the thirdIndiana Jonesmovie, Lucas didn’t release another film untilThe Phantom Menacein 1999. At that point, he hadn’t returned the favor of including a Spielberg-related cameo in his own films. So, he thought ET would be the perfect character to pick to put inStar Warsbecause he belongs to an alien species, of which there are a plethora inStar Wars. Anybody not paying close attention could miss all of these cameos found in each of these classic films. These fun little Easter eggs are the perfect way for these two award-winning directors to show their appreciation for each other in their shared professional fields.
