10 Best Times Star Wars Appeared In Other Movies

2. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Yoda
Universal Pictures

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have been best buds for decades, even going back to before they collaborated on Indiana Jones. In the '70s, the pair even traded backend points on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars, with Lucas believing that Spielberg's sci-fi classic would be the far bigger hit.

Needless to say, Spielberg emerged from that gamble with heavier pockets.

With Star Wars proving such a smash-hit in 1977 (followed by The Empire Strikes Back in 1980), Spielberg decided to pay homage to the franchise in his 1982 flick E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with a few different references dotted throughout.

At one point, we see a child walking down the street in a Yoda costume, which is accompanied by the same Yoda musical cue heard in The Empire Strikes Back. Elsewhere, lead character Elliot's bedroom is stuffed with Star Wars action figures - including Boba Fett, Greedo, and Lando - and right before Elliot introduces him to E.T., his older brother Michael mocks him by doing a Yoda impression.

Brilliantly, Lucas would later return the gesture, with a few members of E.T.'s species appearing on Coruscant in The Phantom Menace. Small universe, huh?

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!