E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a Plant

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With the 30th Anniversary edition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial hitting shelves this week, all sorts of interesting facts are being dusted off and thrown online. Over at i09, they pored over the new book E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: from Concept to Classic and discovered some of the more interesting ones.

Perhaps most surprising is the reveal that E.T. was neither male or female and was actually a plant. In some ways, it kind of makes sense – after all, the aliens were visiting Earth to study plants. There’s also their connection to the flowers throughout the film.

Cool, right? I mean, he glows and all – but so do these mushrooms in the Brazilian rainforest.

Another interesting fact, courtesy of one of the commenters on i09:

“The Reese’s Pieces in the film were supposed to be M&Ms,” writes Jeff Edsell. “M&M/Mars was uncertain about their product being associated with a creepy, possibly child-scaring alien, so they declined, and Reese’s Pieces were used instead.

“After the film was a smash hit, demand for Reese’s Pieces soared, and the factory had to run triple shifts for a while to meet the demand.”

And now, for your viewing pleasure, one of my favorite scenes from the film that basically made me cry tears of joy as a kid/adult.