When you can take your characters anywhere in time, pop culture references pretty much become a given. Legends of Tomorrow has taken full advantage of that idea ever since it first hit the airwaves back in 2016, and The CW's time travel series will double down on that concept as it enters its third season. In fact, with Season 3 now fully in production, it looks like we can expect to see a trip to the 1980s and a significant homage to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the season's fourth episode. Check out a script cover newly revealed by executive producer Marc Guggenheim.
Although the exact plot of Season 3's fourth episode has not been revealed yet, the title alone tells us that there's going to be plenty of Steven Spielberg love on full display. Titled "Phone Home," the episode is a clear homage to the 1982 classic E.T., meaning there's ample room to pay tribute to an entire decade that most fans likely grew up with back in the day. Who knows, maybe The Waverider will even fly in front of the moon like that now iconic scene of E.T. and Elliot on the bike?
There are a few different ways that we could see this episode possibly play out. At San Diego Comic-Con, the cast revealed that an episode of Season 3 would indeed go back to Ray Palmer's childhood in the 1980s, which leads us to believe this is the episode where such an encounter will take place. In a twist on the traditional E.T. narrative, this could potentially see young Ray take the place of Elliot, and the Legends take the place of E.T. trying to get home.
Then there's also the possibility that we could see some literal E.T.s during the events of "Phone Home." The existence of aliens in the Earth-1 universe was established last year in the Arrow-verse crossover, which means there's plenty of narrative potential for aliens to come back to Earth. Let's just hope that it is not The Dominators this time, because they are not exactly the friendly, E.T. type of aliens.
One could easily argue that there's no better time for a show like Legends of Tomorrow to embrace a classic 1980s movie like E.T., since nostalgia for the 1980s has defined pop culture for the last few years, and now seems like the perfect opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. Between shows like Netflix's Stranger Things, and the upcoming 1980s setting for the Transformers Bumblebee spinoff, it is pretty clear that the Reagan era is in vogue. Legends of Tomorrow is about to step up to the plate, and we cannot wait to see how "Phone Home" ultimately plays out when the show returns this fall.
Legends of Tomorrow will return to The CW for its third season on Tuesday, October 10 at 9 p.m. ET -- right after the Season 4 premiere of The Flash. However, there are still plenty of premieres left on the calendar before fall rolls around, so take a look at CinemaBlend's summer TV premiere guide to keep yourself up to date on all of them!
