49 years after Close Encounters, Steven Spielberg still says it's a "guarantee" there's alien life out there as he promotes new sci-fi film Disclosure Day: "Why haven't we been told?"

A man stands in the middle of an elaborate crop circle — (Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Steven Spielberg has been making movies about aliens for his entire career, with his upcoming film Disclosure Day just the latest in his sci-fi oeuvre. According to the legendary filmmaker, what sets Disclosure Day apart from films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, and even Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is how many people are now asking for the truth about "what's happening in our skies."

"I've always been fascinated with things that cannot be explained. And I've made a lot of movies about things that can't be explained, from sharks to saucers," Spielberg explains in a new featurette on Disclosure Day, seen below.

A First Look with Steven Spielberg | Disclosure Day - YouTube — — A First Look with Steven Spielberg | Disclosure Day

"When I was just a little kid, I remember developing a real curiosity about the sky at night, and what's happening up there. And also, not the possibility, but the guarantee that there is life off this planet," he continues. "People's questions about what is not only going on in our skies, but what is going on in our worlds, in our realities, has reached a critical mass, of people's complete fascination with 'Are we alone, or are we not alone?' And if someone knows we're not alone, why haven't we been told?"

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In UFOlogy circles, "disclosure" is a commonly used shorthand term for the idea that the US government will someday confirm the existence of extra-terrestrial beings and reveal all the secret alien info that has supposedly been withheld from the public.

As Spielberg points out, the idea of disclosure has become an increasingly hot button topic among a wider number of people than ever before thanks to an influx of new video footage of what have become known as UAPs - Unexplained Aerial Phenomena - and a string of so-called whistleblowers fanning the flames.

Disclosure Day is scheduled to release in theaters on June 12, 2026. While we wait, you can dig into our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time, and stay up to date on all the most exciting upcoming movies you need to know about.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)

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