--- title: New Xfinity Ad Features E.T. Reuniting With Elliott description: Easter eggs from the 1982 film are sprinkled throughout the ad, and actor Henry Thomas, who starred in E.T. as a child, even reprises the role of Elliott canonical: https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-28T18:10:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:05.186Z og:title: E.T. and Elliott Reuniting For the Holidays is the Gift You Didn't Know You Needed og:description: Easter eggs from the 1982 film are sprinkled throughout the ad—can you spot them? og:url: https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte494206cdb91fa67/698a06c2457a5250c0d632fe/et-xfinity-commercial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5315 og:image:height: 2990 og:image:alt: On the set of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: E.T. and Elliott Reuniting For the Holidays is the Gift You Didn't Know You Needed twitter:description: Easter eggs from the 1982 film are sprinkled throughout the ad—can you spot them? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte494206cdb91fa67/698a06c2457a5250c0d632fe/et-xfinity-commercial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # E.T. and Elliott Reuniting for the Holidays Is the Gift You Didn't Know You Needed > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 28, 2019 6:10 PM UTC  Henry Thomas on the set of "E.T." Henry Thomas on the set of "E.T."Corbis/Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 28, 2019 6:10 PM UTC Everyone’s favorite extraterrestrial E.T. has reunited with his best buddy Elliott, and it honestly feels like [Christmas](https://time.com/5715268/best-christmas-rom-coms-2019/) has come early. In a nostalgic new commercial from internet and cable company Xfinity, the titular character from Steven Spielberg’s [classic 1982 movie](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087F7VSY/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0087F7VSY&linkId=c37118e74051a37680a0e91cf32fff23) makes a surprise trip back to Earth to surprise a grown up Elliott (and his family). Actor Henry Thomas, who starred in E.T. as a child, even reprises his role. E.T. first surprises Elliott’s kids, before reuniting with the whole family in a very touching reunion. “A lot’s changed since you were here,” Elliott says, showing E.T. a touch screen tablet, the Internet, and a virtual reality headset. (In other words, lots of opportunities for E.T. to phone home this time, or to announce his next visit in advance so that there’s enough snacks to go around.) Easter eggs for fans of the film are sprinkled throughout the ad. Look for the hand-me-down toys, for example, and Elliott’s son wearing similar pajamas to those from the original movie. E.T. still likes Reese’s Pieces and live flowers; he and Elliott’s kids fly in bicycles silhouetted by the full moon, before the little alien touches Elliott’s son’s heart and reminds him “I’ll be right here.” I won’t lie, I teared up a little. Eventually E.T. heads back to his own family, flying off to [John Williams’ iconic soundtrack](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SPN16F2/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00SPN16F2&linkId=18b4c484be67465a5564681467fdbcbc). It was a brief visit, but presumably even interstellar [traffic over the holidays](https://time.com/5738199/thanksgiving-travel-weather-2019/) is a nightmare. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/"},"headline":"E.T. and Elliott Reuniting for the Holidays Is the Gift You Didn't Know You Needed","datePublished":"2019-11-28T18:10:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:05.186Z","description":"Easter eggs from the 1982 film are sprinkled throughout the ad—can you spot them?","url":"https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","commercials","Holidays","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte494206cdb91fa67/698a06c2457a5250c0d632fe/et-xfinity-commercial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte494206cdb91fa67/698a06c2457a5250c0d632fe/et-xfinity-commercial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"On the set of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial","caption":"On the set of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial","creditText":"Corbis/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5741259/et-movie-elliott-reunion-xfinity-commercial/","name":"E.T. and Elliott Reuniting for the Holidays Is the Gift You Didn't Know You Needed"}}]}] ```