Created by Spielberg and the film's screenwriter Melissa Mathison and portrayed by then 11-year-old Henry Thomas, Elliott serves as the main human protagonist who, along with his friends and family, helps the titular extraterrestrial return home.

While the character is original, aspects of Elliott are based on Spielberg himself, mainly involving the fact that he is a child of divorced parents, except that unlike Spielberg, Elliott lives with his mother, Mary (Dee Wallace), an older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and younger sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore).

[4] Thomas, who auditioned in an Indiana Jones costume, did not perform well in the formal testing, but got the filmmakers' attention in an improvised scene.

[5] In 1982, during the film's first theatrical run, Spielberg and Mathison wrote a treatment for a sequel to be titled E.T.

"[9] On November 28, 2019, during NBC's broadcast of the 93rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Xfinity released a four-minute commercial directed by Lance Acord, calling it a "short film sequel" to the original film, titled A Holiday Reunion.

References and nods to the original film are featured, such as a photo of the Taylors' family dog Harvey on the kitchen fridge and a replica of the makeshift Speak & Spell communication device.

It has been cited as a contributing factor to the video game industry crash of 1983,[citation needed] has been mocked in popular culture,[citation needed] and is cited as a cautionary tale about the dangers of rushed game development and studio interference.

[citation needed] As a result of overproduction and returns, millions of unsold cartridges were secretly buried in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill and covered with a layer of concrete.

[23][24][25] Elliott Taylor served as a major inspiration for Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things.