People just realising E.T. has an actual first name that most of us missed

I just want to say right from the beginning that now I know what E.T.'s real name is I don't like it.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a charming, classic movie from Steven Spielberg about an alien that gets left behind on Earth and is befriended by some kids who try to help him get back home.

The idea for the alien apparently first came from Spielberg's own imaginary friend.

Of course if you've seen the movie then you know that E.T. gets that name from Elliot, it stands for 'extra terrestrial' and it's what the kids start calling him and he in turn picks up words from them so he starts referring to himself as E.T. as well.

You could watch the movie a million times and never be any closer to learning what E.T.'s actual name was, and you'd be all the better for it.

His name is E.T. and you can't change my mind. (Universal Pictures)

Back in 1982 when E.T. was doing incredibly well in cinemas there were some plans drawn up for sequels.

There was an idea that the kids might get captured by evil aliens and need E.T.'s help, but Spielberg canned the idea as he thought it'd be bad for the original movie.

In a story treatment for this scrapped sequel, which was supposed to be called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, it was revealed that the alien's name was actually 'Zrek' all along.

That's right, E.T. is actually called Zrek, and the sequel would have seen a group of albino E.T.s land on Earth responding to his distress call and arriving too late.

The name 'Zrek' just isn't buttering my parsnips. (Universal Pictures)

I've made my views on Zrek quite clear already and I hope you'll join me in disapproving of the name, it's as wrong as cheese and onion crisps being in blue packet.

People online tended to agree, with one writing: "My kids got my ass looking up ET’s real name on my phone. The crazy thing is, it’s on there.

"This motherf**ker’s name is Zrek!"

Another said: "Why did ET never tell them that his real name is Zrek? Seriously, that's his real name! They just started calling him ET and he was like 'Alright. Guess that's my name now.'"

The name did not go down well (X)

While Spielberg doesn't watch many of his movies over and over again, he did in the past say that E.T. was the one 'that I can actually look back at again and again'.

Of all the movies he's made across a glittering career he said there's 'only about five or six films I can watch again'.

He said: "Sometimes I see things that I had intended to do that I didn't do, and sometimes I see things that would have been a better idea than what I’m now seeing all these years later – but for the most part, E.T. is a pretty perfect movie."

However, there's one bit of the film that got edited out which Spielberg wishes he hadn't done.

In the 2002 re-release, the guns the government agents were carrying were swapped out for walkie-talkies and the director wishes that hadn't been changed.

"That was a mistake. That was a mistake. I never should have done that because E.T. was a product of its era," he said as he urged other directors not to go back and fiddle with their own work.

"No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily or being forced to peer through.

"E.T. was a film that I was sensitive to the fact that the federal agents were approaching kids with firearms exposed and I thought I would change the guns into walkie talkies. Years went by and I changed my own views."