Disclosure Day: The Secret Real-Life Sequel to Close Encounters?
Is Steven Spielberg about to pull off the ultimate UFO reveal? Speculation is mounting that his new film Disclosure Day is a stealth continuation of the 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Steven Spielberg is circling back to UFOs. Again. His new event movie, Disclosure Day, lands in theaters June 12, and the slow-drip marketing has fans buzzing that he might be sneaking a follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind into theaters without saying the words out loud.
The movie, the date, the vibe
Universal is positioning Disclosure Day as a big original swing from Spielberg, which already makes it a summer priority. The teasers so far keep things close to the vest, but one quick shot of a saucer has people pressing pause and squinting at their screens. Why? Because that craft looks a whole lot like the sleek, glowing design from Spielberg's 1977 classic. That single image is basically catnip for anyone who grew up on that movie.
Who is on board
- Cast: Emily Blunt (SAG winner and Oscar nominee), Josh O'Connor (Emmy and Golden Globe winner), Colin Firth (Oscar winner), Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo (two-time Oscar nominee).
- Story by Steven Spielberg; screenplay by David Koepp. He and Spielberg previously teamed on Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — a run that pulled in more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote 2025's Jurassic World Rebirth.
- Produced by Kristie Macosko Krieger (five-time Academy Award nominee; The Fabelmans, West Side Story) and Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment.
- Executive producers: Adam Somner and Chris Brigham.
Why fans think it ties to Close Encounters
Close Encounters zeroed in on a handful of ordinary people getting knocked sideways by extraordinary contact, and it ended with the strong sense that the rest of the planet was about to catch up. Disclosure Day looks like the what-happens-after version of that idea: a world where alien existence is common knowledge, where the ships are no longer rumors, and where the visitors might be mingling in plain sight. That shift from first-contact awe to global awareness brings a different energy — curiosity, fear, and the kind of big existential questions that get very real once there is no more doubt.
Layer in the fact that Spielberg, now 79, might be putting a bookend on the themes he has chased since he started — unless he has a fresh streak of alien movies coming — and the Close Encounters echoes start to feel intentional. Plus, it's fun. If you have been living with that story for almost 50 years, a stealth continuation is the exact sort of movie-nerd fairy tale that keeps you refreshing for new footage.
Or maybe it's just a favorite look
There is always the simpler read: the saucer resembles the 1977 design because Spielberg likes the way it looks. Even then, Disclosure Day still plays as a full-blooded Spielberg UFO picture — no fedora this time — with a heavyweight cast, his go-to screenwriter, and the kind of mysterious teaser that turns speculation into a sport.
Either way, June 12 just got a lot more interesting.