Steven Spielberg is going back to the genre that shaped his legendary career. After more than two decades, the three-time Academy Award winner returns with Disclosure Day, an original UFO-centered science fiction film starring Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor. The first teaser is here, and it promises the sense of awe and mystery that made Close Encounters of the Third Kind a timeless classic.
A Return to Form
Spielberg has not directed an alien sci-fi film since War of the Worlds in 2005. That twenty-year gap has only heightened anticipation for Disclosure Day, which brings him back to the cosmic wonder and human connection of earlier masterpieces like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His most recent directorial effort, The Fabelmans (2022), earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. Now he is turning his eyes to the skies again.
"If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day."
The film's logline asks a question humanity has pondered for generations: how would we react to proof of extraterrestrial life? Unlike the invasion stories that dominate modern blockbusters, Disclosure Day seems set to explore the psychological and social effects of first contact, a theme Spielberg first tackled in Close Encounters almost fifty years ago.
The Teaser: A Cryptic Warning
The teaser, released by Universal Pictures on December 16, 2025, opens with a haunting voiceover question: "If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?"
A montage of increasingly unsettling images follows. Emily Blunt appears as a television meteorologist calmly giving a weather report. Then something shifts. Her demeanor changes, her words falter, and alien-like sounds come from her mouth as she seems to be overtaken by an otherworldly force on live television.
Teaser Highlights
- • Emily Blunt's character is possessed on live television
- • Josh O'Connor declares "people have a right to know the truth"
- • Mysterious crop circles appear across rural landscapes
- • Animals behave in strange, unsettling ways
- • Car chases and government surveillance imagery
Key Details
- Release Date:June 12, 2026
- Director:Steven Spielberg
- Screenwriter:David Koepp
- Production:Amblin Entertainment
The teaser then introduces Josh O'Connor's character, a man who insists that "people have a right to know the truth" and wants "full disclosure, to the whole world, all at once." His goal seems to be global revelation: a coordinated announcement of extraterrestrial contact reaching all seven billion people on Earth at the same moment.
An All-Star Cast
The ensemble for Disclosure Day is among the most impressive of Spielberg's career. Emily Blunt, a SAG Award winner and Oscar nominee for Oppenheimer and A Quiet Place, leads the cast, and Josh O'Connor, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner known for Challengers and The Crown, co-stars as the truth-seeking protagonist.
The supporting cast features Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech, the Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple), and two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin). Wyatt Russell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and Michael Gaston round out the group.
Colman Domingo, who appeared in Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), has spoken with emotion about the project. "I read the script immediately and burst into tears, because I think there is so much humanity in it," he said. "That's ultimately the most I can share: it's about the possibilities of what we can be when we truly make deeper contact and connections with each other."
"I read the script immediately and burst into tears, because I think there is so much humanity in it. It's about the possibilities of what we can be when we truly make deeper contact and connections with each other."
Behind the Camera: Spielberg and Koepp Reunite
Disclosure Day reunites Spielberg with screenwriter David Koepp, whose collaboration with the director stretches back decades. Koepp wrote or co-wrote Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, films that together earned over three billion dollars worldwide. He also wrote Jurassic World Rebirth, released in 2025.
Spielberg produces the film with five-time Academy Award nominee Kristie Macosko Krieger, who previously worked with him on The Fabelmans and West Side Story. Adam Somner and Chris Brigham are executive producers.
Spielberg's Sci-Fi Legacy
The director became a household name with Jaws in 1975, but his ties to alien science fiction run deeper. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) framed first contact as a spiritual experience. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) turned the genre into a story of childhood wonder and friendship. War of the Worlds (2005) delivered a darker vision of invasion and survival. Disclosure Day appears to blend all three, asking not what aliens would do to us but how we would react to knowing they exist.
This is the thirty-seventh film Spielberg has directed since his debut feature Firelight in 1964. By coincidence, that first film was also a science fiction story.
The Marketing Campaign
Universal Pictures has launched an extensive marketing campaign for Disclosure Day. Billboards in Times Square, Los Angeles, and other major locations carry the phrase "All will be disclosed — 06.12.26" next to imagery suggesting a human eye. The campaign has built anticipation through mystery, revealing little while promising a lot.
The film was reportedly shot mostly in New Jersey, though production details have stayed tightly guarded. Based on an original story by Spielberg, the project marks a return to personal filmmaking inside the blockbuster framework, a balance the director has mastered throughout his career.
What to Expect
Early reactions to the teaser have compared it to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with many noting the same tone of awe and mystery rather than horror or action. The teaser emphasizes human reaction to the unknown, focusing on the faces of characters confronting something beyond comprehension.
Unlike traditional invasion stories in which extraterrestrials arrive as conquerors, Disclosure Day appears to center on the moment of revelation itself. The title points not to something aliens do but to a choice humanity makes: to disclose the truth about our place in the universe. Whether that disclosure comes from governments, from individuals like Josh O'Connor's character, or from the extraterrestrials themselves is still unclear.
Release Information
Disclosure Day opens exclusively in theaters on June 12, 2026, through Universal Pictures. The film is not available for streaming or early access, and no official runtime has been announced. AMC Theatres has announced a bonus points promotion for screenings between June 11 and June 14, 2026.
Written by Marcus Reynolds
Senior Film Industry Analyst
Sources: Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, official teaser trailer, cast and crew interviews
Release date: June 12, 2026
Distributed by Universal Pictures
