Over the Thanksgiving holiday a surprise reunion and sequel happened on TV for the world to see. Xfinity (owned by Comcast, the parent company of Universal Pictures) gave fans the E.T. sequel they have always dreamt about. Following the popularity of the commercial itself, Xfinity has released an extended behind-the-scenes video about the making of the commercial featuring interviews with E.T. star Henry Thomas who returns as Elliot. Others interviewed in the video include director Lance Acord, Animatronic Effects Supervisor Alan Scott, Visual Effects Supervisor Pat Murphy and more! Watch it for yourself in the player above!
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The new commercial, which clocks in at nearly five minutes, follows a Elliot, the little boy who audiences fell in love with decades ago, who returns as an adult. After all of these years, Elliot has grown into a man with a wife and two children. He has an older son and young daughter to keep track of, but things get haywire when a friend from the past shows up.
The video sees E.T. return home after going years without seeing Elliot. The boy’s children find the alien hiding behind a snowman before their dad realizes what is going on. The emotional reunion will have fans of the original film feeling emotional, and it only gets worse from there.
As the short continues, fans watch as Elliot and his family welcome E.T. into the fold. The alien gets to watch a movie and even play a VR game before his time to leave comes back around. This time, it is Elliot’s son who gets on a flying bicycle to usher E.T. to his ship, and the nostalgic scene will take the breath from audiences. If Elliot’s final moment with E..T. doesn’t make you cry then this getaway scene will do the trick.
As part of the promotion in using E.T. for this spot, Xfinity made the classic film available on demand for Xfinity TV customers, with more than a million of them watching the film since the spot aired on Thanksgiving. You can watch it for yourself by clicking here, and read about the actual sequel to E.T. that almost happened over here.
