20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

14. E.T. Has A Cameo

Star Wars The Phantom Menace ET
Lucasfilm

The Phantom Menace kick-started the trend of Star Wars movies featuring Easter eggs, nods and references to both the wider franchise and also pop-culture as a whole.

Eagle-eyed viewers might notice the appearance of an EVA Pod from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in the film's junkyard sequence, but most bizarrely of all is the presence of what seems to be E.T. in the Intergalactic Senate.

Three alien creatures can be spotted who bear an uncanny resemblance to the protagonist of Steven Spielberg's 1982 sci-fi classic, and in-canon are known as "Asogians."

The cameo reportedly came about as payback for Spielberg, after he included numerous blatant Star Wars references in E.T. almost 20 years prior.

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