I was pretty amused to find out (via a colleague) that Outkast’s iconic Hey Ya! nearly went by a completely different name.
And when I found out the story behind how Back To The Future avoided a terrible name change, I couldn’t stop telling people about it.
Well, folks, it’s happened again. I’ve had another pop culture name shock.
Because it turns out that not only does E.T.’s titular extraterrestrial have an actual name, but it’s really funny, too.
Go on ― what’s E.T.’s real name?
The alien is called Zrek.
Yep, Zrek. Like Shrek, but more space-y.
You might be thinking, “Wait ― I thought we never heard his name in the movie?”, and you’d be right.
But Genius shared a nine-page treatment that Steven Spielberg and E.T.’s writer Melissa Mathison wrote to pitch a sequel for the movie called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears.
“In it, the cast has to deal with an invasion of aliens that are as dangerous as everyone thought E.T. was,” Genius explained.
You know what’s scarier than that, though?
The bit where the writers say that the aliens (on a ship called EVIL) are “searching for a stranded extraterrestrial named Zrek, who is sending a call for ‘Help.’”
They mention Zrek’s name two more times in the treatment.
The terrifying aliens then interrogate the children about Zrek, who presumably won’t know him by name ― as I didn’t.
So, uh, how come we never saw the sequel?
According to Steven Spielberg, Zrek’s government name never got out there because the sequel may have ruined the integrity of the E.T. franchise.
“Sequels can be very dangerous because they compromise your truth as an artist,” he said.
“I think a sequel to E.T. would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity. People only remember the latest episode, while the pilot tarnishes,” the director added.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial has a whopping 99% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, so we understand his reluctance to revisit the film.
But we can’t help but wonder what the score would have been had Zrek been so named in the first movie...