Max explores the connection between Star Wars and E.T The Extra-Terrestrial. Was E.T a Jedi?
He’s lost. He’s alone. He’s 3 million light-years from home. Those iconic words do NOT come from Star Wars but to another movie almost as good. E.T The Extra-Terrestrial, a fancy word for an alien. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in theaters in 1982, one year before (what was thought at the time) to be the final Star Wars.
Now many fans of both the Star Wars franchise and the E.T. movie are not aware of the connection between these seemingly two separate “universes”. I watched E.T. as a child. I owned the VHS and loved it almost as much as Star Wars. To say it was better or worse is unfair since they are such totally different movies, right? Actually, they are more alike then anyone could possibly imagine. Steven and George Lucas were good friends. Two movie-making geniuses with a lot of respect for one another.
To show his respect for George, Steven put a Star Wars reference into E.T. when E.T. is walking with Elliot during Halloween on Earth, he sees a young child dressed as Yoda. With his limited English, E.T. tries to go up to the Yoda and says “Home home”. This was supposed to be what is called an Easter Egg in the movie; a break the 4th wall reference that means nothing and it did mean nothing until 1999 when George decided to return the favor. In The Phantom Menace, in the Galactic Senate of the Republic, there is a blink and you missed it moment where aliens who look VERY similar to E.T. are sitting in a hover pod representing whatever planet they are from.
Now it’s here this gets interesting. The folks behind the magic labeled these doppelgängers as Asogians or Children of the Green Planet and in their bio, one of the senators is named Grebleips and he is from the planet Brodi Asogi. Also, around the time of the beginning of The Clone Wars, this senator was looking at pursuing an intergalactic survey. Hmmm. Intergalactic is a term often interchangeably used and mistaken for with the term interstellar. Intergalactic mean between galaxies while interstellar means within one galaxy. Poe Dameron: Free Fall recently made that mistake. Anyways, this senator who’s name sounds like someone is trying to talk with a mouth full of marbles is trying to fund a mission outside of the Star Wars galaxy. The GFFA is strangely never given a name in Legends or Canon like our galaxy (called the Milky Way) and in Legends, travel between galaxies was thought to be very difficult due to the Hyperspace disturbance at the edge of the galaxy.
Now in canon, there hasn’t been a confirmed barrier and the Armaxine warriors from Bloodline, are said to have left the galaxy after they were unable to topple the Republic. At this point, you are probably wondering what this has to do with anything; but think back to that opening quote. E.T. was said to be 3 million light-years from home. A light-year is a distance of nearly 6 trillion miles and my calculator isn’t advanced enough to calculate 3 million of those. What I do know is that the Milky Way galaxy spans a length of 100,000 light-years and in Legends; the GFFA is slightly bigger at 120,000 light-years. This basically tells us that E.T. was VERY far from home and he is from a different galaxy.
Doing research, the galaxy exactly 3 million light-years from us is known as Pegasus Dwarf Irregular and a companion of the much bigger Andromeda Galaxy. Now a GFFA is an average to the slightly larger sized galaxy so this galaxy is probably not a GFFA. Yet, 3 million is just an estimation and not the solid definitive number and the next furthest galaxy is 3.03 million light-years away and is known as Andromeda XII or Andromeda 12. It is a satellite of the very large Andromeda galaxy which is 220,000 light-years in diameter; which is more than double the size of our galaxy. Andromeda 12 is probably a GFFA and in canon and Legends, the Star Wars galaxy is said to be surrounded by satellite galaxies like the Rishi Maze and Firefist. It really fits quite perfectly and with all these clues; we can conclude that E.T. may have been a scientist visitor from this galaxy.
Isaac Arthur has surmised that some galaxies may only have 1 civilization every billion years and the GFFA might be a “special” galaxy home to billions of civilizations because it is the location of the wellspring of the Force which Yoda visits in The Clone Wars. E.T.’s ship which we see at the end of the movie looks very similar to something the Techno Union might manufacture and who knows. Maybe they funded that Brodi Asogian senator’s expedition. Now let’s move closer to the main character of the E.T. movie. In the movie, E.T. shows that he has telekinetic and telepathic powers. This would mean that E.T. happens to be Force-sensitive and can use TK, telepathy, and something akin to a hibernation trance and plant surge, all powers Jedi have displayed in the EU.
E.T. was a force-sensitive Jedi scientist who came to this galaxy because most galaxies rarely have life and this was the first “stop” on their expedition. Many other questions swirl around my head as I write this article such as why do humans exist in both these galaxies. Is it convergent evolution like from Star Trek or did humans emigrate here at some point? The story of Star Wars is said to be “a long time ago” in addition to a galaxy far, far away and maybe humans of Earth are humans of Star Wars’ descendants and the movies we know as “Star Wars” are ancient tales passed on from the Journals of the Whills who recorded these stories and somehow George obtained them.
This all might sound silly but this is my headcanon based on evidence that has been presented to us. E.T. may have even been a Jedi and since E.T. never had a sequel; it is up to the imagination of the fans to only dream and speculate. What do you guys think of my theories?
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Max Nocerino is a new addition to the Future of the Force roster. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter @MaxN2100 where he channels his passion frequently!
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Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
