By George & Josh Bate
Raiders of the Lost Ark. Schindler’s List. Jurassic Park. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Arguably no filmmaker in cinema history has masterminded the sheer number of life-altering, identity-defining films as Steven Spielberg. During Universal Pictures and Focus Features’ CinemaCon 2026 presentation, the legendary director was honored for his contributions to cinema and presented an intriguing footage of his latest film and return to the sci-fi genre – Disclosure Day.
Spielberg was honored with the MPA America250 Award during the presentation, a one-time honor recognizing his profound and enduring impact on American storytelling. In his acceptance speech, Spielberg thanked exhibitors and urged studios to extend theatrical windows. He also said, “I haven’t made a Western yet. But that’s next. Hopefully.”
After accepting the award, Spielberg sat down for an interview with Colman Domingo, who stars alongside Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in the filmmaker’s latest movie.
Spielberg discussed his long-awaited return to the sci-fi genre and his enduring curiosity with life beyond Earth. “I’ve been curious ever since I was a little kid about what’s happening in the night sky. What’s happening in the day sky,” the legendary filmmaker remarked. “As I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, all these reports [about UFOs] were coming out….There was an American fascination with the UFO phenomenon…Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon, without really believing anything was really happening….Back then [with Close Encounters of the Third Kind], I didn’t know if it was true….to me, it was sci-speculation. Not science fiction. Back then, I made the movie because it was a really good story to tell. Now, I made Disclosure Day with a lot more certainty [of life beyond Earth].”
Spielberg also spoke about the importance of studios taking risks on original films amidst a deluge of franchise fare and established IP. “If all we make is known, branded IP, we’re going to run out of gas and run out of gas very quickly,” Spielberg said. “There’s nothing more important than giving audiences original stories.”
Universal and Spielberg have a strong relationship dating back decades. Presumably, the strength of this relationship allowed Spielberg to make certain demands of the PR team behind Disclosure Day. “I told Universal we can’t give away the third act in the trailers,” Spielberg said. “All I can say, it is an experience, this movie. This movie is something that needs to be experienced. All you need to get from the beginning to the end is a seatbelt.”
Before presenting footage from the film, Spielberg made some rather poignant remarks that increased our already sky-high remarks for the film. “I believe this movie is going to answer questions and is going to ask a lot of questions.”
Exclusive footage in the form of an extended 5+ minute trailer was then presented to the CinemaCon crowd at Caesar’s Palace. The trailer revealed a whole lot more about the movie than we previously knew.
The trailer begins in almost identical fashion to the publicly released trailer. Emily Blunt’s weather person begins to make odd clicking sounds on a live broadcast, leading to concerns from her colleagues.
Josh O’Connor, meanwhile, speaks to his partner, played by Eve Hewson, that he has stolen information from the government revealing the discovery of extraterrestrial life. O’Connor shows Hewson grainy black-and-white footage of men in hazmat suits in a morgue pulling bodies out. Hewsen asks if the bodies are children. O’Connor tells her no.
Elsewhere, Colin Firth’s big government baddie is alarmed at Blunt’s outburst on television and attempts to cover it up. It is later revealed that he is in possession of technology that allows him to take over the body of other humans. He uses this tech to take over Hewson’s body.
O’Connor speaks with Hewson about how he understands the clicking noises that Blunt made on TV. He shows her math equations and says that they are what he is hearing from her speech.
Blunt and her husband played by Wyatt Russell are frantically driving in a car when Blunt calls O’Connor, despite not knowing who he is. Clearly, she has been informed by someone that the government is after O’Connor, a fact that she discloses to him just in the nick of time.
O’Connor makes his way to a house and rescues Hewson as an army of black cars chase after him. He drives the car through the house and into a massive field.
Colman Domingo appears in the trailer several times, seemingly as a key figure of the narrative. Domingo is playing some kind of professor or scientist in the movie. Domingo converses with Firth’s character, who relays that they have to keep what they know about aliens a secret. Domingo is going behind Firth’s back, however, by consulting with Blunt.
O’Connor is then shown captured and strapped to a chair as Blunt approaches him. The two know each other, although neither is able to describe how they do. Flashbacks reveal that the two knew each other as children and were seemingly experimented on by little gray aliens. We catch quick glimpses of the aliens, who look just like the stereotypical aliens from the 1950s and 1960s sci-fi movies Spielberg grew up on.
After being somewhat underwhelmed by the first trailer, the CinemaCon footage propelled our hype for Disclosure Day to new heights. The story seems interesting and it’s great to see Spielberg tackle sci-fi again. Imagine an extended episode of The X-Files directed by Spielberg and that’s what Disclosure Day looks like.
Disclosure Day is in theaters on June 12, 2026.