In Star Wars: Episode I, we get a glimpse of all the aliens present in the Old Republic’s Senate chamber. One of the delegations consisted of a species of aliens which are visibly identical to the aliens depicted in the film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.
I contend that it is, in fact, the same species. Moreover, I think that it actually makes sense for E.T. to exist within the Star Wars universe. It explains his magic powers, at the very least.
One niggling thought is that Star Wars takes place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”; but E.T. takes place on earth in the early 80s. I would have expected E.T.’s species to have evolved considerably by then. But then I realized that there are humans in Star Wars. So obviously, things work differently in the Star Wars universe!
I don’t remember if the E.T. film had any references to the Star Wars franchise (maybe Elliot had a Darth Vader poster on his wall); but if so, I will chalk it up to some ill-defined ancestral memory on the part of earth-based humanity. Obviously, the end of the Old Republic, the rise of the Empire, the Rebellion, and the birth of the New Republic would be something embedded into the midi-chlorians that inhabit all living things in this universe. That’s so obvious, I don’t even need to provide evidence for it.
So, we now know a few things: E.T. and his species (not to mention Elliot and the rest of the humans of the E.T. film) inhabit the same universe as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca. We know that E.T. is very force-sensitive: in addition to making the bike fly and entering a Jedi-hibernation-trance-thing (at the end of the film), he actually brought a dead plant back to life. As far as I know, Luke Skywalker never performed resurrections. Given his abilities, I suppose Elliot should be thankful that E.T. is preoccupied with studying plants and making long distance phone calls and doesn’t see any point in conquering Earth.
Now all I’m left to wonder: do Yoda’s and E.T.’s species share any relation? I’ll leave that to someone else.