The first trailer and posters were officially released for Steven Spielberg's newest movie, Disclosure Day, and all of that marketing material notably centered around animals or animal imagery. In 2024, it was announced that Spielberg had begun working on his next feature film and that it would be a mysterious sci-fi flick with a strong focus on UFOs. Now that the first look at the movie has been revealed by Universal Pictures, fans are a bit confused since there is a lack of UFOs and an abundance of strange animals.
What Is Disclosure Day About?
In the trailer for Disclosure Day that was recently revealed, animals appear all throughout the footage. The first time they appear is in the second shot, and they show up throughout the trailer all the way until the title card at the end. A group of animals is even present during the final shot (which is often a "money shot" in a trailer).
Specifically, though, the animals are acting extremely weird, and definitely do not mimic the behavior animals normally do. For example, at around the :05 mark, a group of deer are standing outside of a house, but they are all staring at Josh O'Connor's character, who is inside the house.
A little later in the trailer, a cardinal can actually be seen inside the house, once again directly in front of Blunt's character, staring at her.
In the shot of the deer, the main one is a buck, as its antlers are clearly on display. That buck, along with the cardinal, makes another appearance later on in the trailer.
Specifically, the buck makes its way into the bedroom of the child who is shown in the footage. As she is sitting in front of her bed, it walks directly up to her. Then, the cardinal flies down and lands on one of the buck's tines.
Interestingly, the buck and the cardinal also show up in the film's official posters, though not in full view. Instead of the posters actually featuring the animals, they show their silhouettes.
On the character poster that focuses on Emily Blunt (who will be in another massive 2026 movie from Disney), only around half of her face can be seen clearly. The other half, and the background of the poster, are entirely blurred out. The only area that is in focus is in the shape of the cardinal.
Similarly, for Josh O'Connor's character poster, the buck's silhouette causes some of his face to be in focus, but the rest of the poster, which is outside of the buck's shape, is blurry.
The trailer does not reveal the significance of the animals, and definitely does not tell viewers why they are acting so strange, but since the animals are so prominently featured in the trailer and the posters, they will clearly play a massive role in the movie's plot.
It is also interesting that the deer are staring at O'Connor's character in the trailer since his character poster has a deer on it. Similarly, the cardinal appears to Blunt's character, and then her poster has the cardinal on it.
The full trailer for Disclosure Day can be viewed below.
Disclosure Day will be released on June 12, 2026.
Why Are the Animals Acting Strange In Disclosure Day Movie's Trailer?
Although the trailer for Disclosure Day was just released, many fans have already begun theorizing why the animals are acting the way that they are. While nothing can be known for sure until the film premieres, there are a few possibilities that seem most likely.
One of the most popular early theories for the animals' behavior is that they are possessed by something. Along with the animal imagery in the trailer, there is also a lot of religious imagery. For instance, a crucifix is shown very early on in the trailer in full focus, and some Catholic Nuns or Sisters are shown a bit later.
It is possible that the animals could be possessed by some kind of supernatural force or beings, which would explain why they are acting so strangely towards humans. It is worth noting that animals are heavily tied to the spiritual world in many cultures, with different animals representing different things.
However, a more likely theory that is already swirling is that the animals are a part of some kind of hive mind. It is important to remember that this is a UFO/alien-based project, and no actual UFOs or aliens were featured in the trailer. It is possible that extraterrestrial beings could be using or controlling the animals instead of appearing to humans themselves.
If that were the case, they could almost definitely infiltrate the human race more safely than if they actually came down and appeared to humans in their true forms. Humans naturally gravitate toward animals, and most people have a certain fondness for animals like deer and birds, so it would not be surprising if aliens were using animals to get closer to humans.
It is also worth mentioning that, at one point in the trailer, a strange sign or symbol appeared in the middle of a field. Symbols like the one shown are commonly associated with UFOs and aliens, so that gives even more credibility to the theory that the animals could be controlled by aliens.
