In a recent interview for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, host Joshua Horowitz asked
Steven Spielberg, “Did Elliott ever see E.T. again?” Spielberg’s answer was “No,” but that Elliott did dream about E.T. thanks to a psychic connection the extraterrestrial forged with the boy. This, however, contradicts Spielberg’s own, officially sanctioned — if long forgotten — sequel for his 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet is a 1985 novel by William Kotzwinkle, who also wrote the official novelization of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The book begins just after the movie ends and follows E.T. to his home planet Brodo Asogi, more commonly referred to as “The Green Planet.” Once he arrives, E.T. is questioned about his time on Earth. In a surprise twist, rather than be celebrated for adventure, E.T. loses his prestigious job as a plant biologist and is demoted to a lowly farmer.
Then, much like E.T. longed to return home in the film, he spends the majority of the book spying on Elliott back on Earth and trying to figure out a way to rejoin him. Eventually, he plots to steal a spaceship and reunite with Elliott.
The way E.T. uses that psychic connection with Elliot is surprising. The alien being creates miniature psychic replicants of himself that project down to Earth and try hopelessly to get the attention of Elliott, who is now a few years older and in love with a female classmate. But the replicants aren’t just ghostly projections. They are tangible and they’re constantly thwarted by getting squished and sucked down drains and things like that.
Besides E.T.’s sad story of his return home, a lot of the book is about the worldbuilding of his home planet. For example, we learn that E.T.’s species is named the “Asogians” and that they’re one of a handful of intelligent species on their planet. Also, there are all kinds of special, useful plants on the planet, like homes being made from giant squash and hyperintelligent plants that can speak. When E.T. and his friends steal the spaceship at the end of the book, it’s a giant flying turnip.
Despite a bit of rockiness in their space travels, E.T.’s turnip ship does manage to bring him to his destination, or at least, that’s what’s implied. At the end of the book, the turnip has made it all the way to the Milky Way galaxy, with the implication being that E.T.’s reunion with Elliott is imminent.
But according to Spielberg’s new interview, E.T. and Elliot never see each other again, which suggests that Spielberg forgot about this book. (Or wishes he could forget about it.) In an interview with SYFY Wire, Kotzwinkle said Spielberg was only briefly involved at the beginning of the novel. Still, Spielberg did approve it for publication.
Or maybe Spielberg does remember E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet and he’s alluding to some much darker ending where E.T. doesn’t make it to his destination, despite getting so close. That’s entirely possible. Turnips hardly seem like reliable spacecraft.