Steven Spielberg's Alien TV Thriller You Forgot Exists: The Whispers

Here we go again: aliens. Spielberg is back in the ET zone for 2026 with Disclosure Day, and if you're the kind of person who hoards trivia for movie night, stick around—there's a lesser-known TV show you should really watch before hitting theaters. Let's get into it.

Spielberg's Latest Alien Adventure—But Is It Really a Sequel?

Disclosure Day launches June 12, 2026, and, yes, the hype is already brewing. Everyone wants to know: Are aliens real, and is Spielberg doubling down on his classic Close Encounters territory? For the record, the film stars Josh O'Connor as Daniel Kellner—your average guy who suddenly realizes he can understand a weather broadcaster (Emily Blunt's Margaret Fairchild) when she starts speaking what sounds suspiciously like alien gibberish on-air. Suddenly, Daniel's ability to decode this makes him the world's weirdest whistleblower.

Is this a spiritual sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), or are we getting an entirely new flavor of Spielberg alien? Nobody's saying. And if you grew up watching E.T. on repeat, well, that influence is never far away either.

The Spielberg Sci-Fi TV Deep Cut You (Probably) Missed

Here's something even the film nerds sometimes forget: Spielberg produced a one-season sci-fi thriller on ABC back in 2015 called The Whispers. If you want to go into Disclosure Day extra-prepared, binge this first.

The series ran for 15 episodes, featuring Lily Rabe as Special Agent Claire Bennington. Her life unravels when she investigates a case where kids start talking about an 'imaginary friend' called Drill—who, of course, turns out to be very real, very manipulative, and probably not from around here. Claire's personal life gets as much attention as the alien plot: her husband (Milo Ventimiglia) comes back from the presumed dead, and her son Henry is caught in the crosshairs of Drill's games.

What makes The Whispers worth your time before Disclosure Day? For starters, the show dodges cheesy monster clichés by having the alien menace operate through electricity and never showing up as a big rubber-suited creature. It's a solid choice—evokes a chill instead of eye rolls. Plus, the story leans into what you'd expect from Spielberg: lost childhood, family drama, and parents in panic mode. It never tries to be The Most Important Alien Show Ever Made (it barely made a splash when it aired, honestly), but it's a crafty appetizer for what you might get in his upcoming film.

Comparing Alien TV: The Whispers vs. the Classic

You can't talk alien TV without mentioning The X-Files. While The Whispers centers around a skeptical agent (Claire) getting in deep with a possible alien invasion, it's closer to the Mulder-and-Scully setup than you might think. Claire's got the focus of Scully, but she buys into the weird much faster—none of that endless 'but is it rational?' back-and-forth. If Mulder and Scully ever showed up in The Whispers, they'd have cracked Drill's case by episode three.

• Lily Rabe as Claire Bennington—the protagonist, an FBI agent with the classic haunted-by-her-own-backstory vibe
• Milo Ventimiglia as Sean Bennington—Claire's not-so-dead husband, returning for bonus drama
• Kyle Harrison Breitkopf as Henry Bennington—their son, first target of Drill's mind games
• Other kids, more parents, and a trail of suspicion—nobody's safe when Drill starts playing games

So, Why Watch The Whispers Now?

Spielberg's knack for making you care about messy families in jaw-dropping situations is the connective tissue here. The Whispers is about kids who don't even know they're in danger and parents panicking as reality gets stranger by the minute. Disclosure Day, judging by what we've seen and heard, promises to upend the world with the question, 'What if you saw a trusted voice on TV—someone basically normal—suddenly start speaking in an alien language?' If that happened during your local news, who's tuning back in for the weather tomorrow?

Sure, aliens manipulating playground games might feel less 'realistic' than a media-driven global crisis, but the emotional stakes? They're right in line with each other.

Spielberg Weighs In: Have We Ever Been Alone?

If you want a straight-up answer from Spielberg about the alien question, take this actual quote he dropped at a SXSW panel in March 2026:

'I’ve always believed, even as a kid, that we weren’t alone. That just goes without saying. The big question is, are we alone now? And have we been alone over the last 80 years? And really, have we been alone over the last 3,000 years?'

Both The Whispers and Disclosure Day seem to exist in that zone—compelling you to ask yourself if we've been alone this whole time, or just too distracted to notice. Think of The Whispers as your warmup, and Disclosure Day as the main event.