There’s a lot of UFO talk going on right now. Since the Pentagon verified the authenticity of a 2019 UFO video filmed by US Navy personnel, in April, we’ve had Barack Obama confirming that “footage and records” of unidentified objects exist, and another statement from the Pentagon saying it can’t rule out alien technology in relation to UFO sightings.

Now, sci-fi filmmaker JJ Abrams is set to capitalise on the growing intrigue, producing a forthcoming four part docu-series — aptly-titled UFO — for Showtime. 

In collaboration with directors Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder, Abrams will reportedly explore the “unsettling theories of a subject that recently reached national headlines, and has historically been the focus of powerful politicians and CEOs, while average citizens pursuing the very same truth have been ridiculed and ostracized”.

Produced by Abrams’ Bad Robot, the show will also examine “what clandestine influence the American government, lucrative private companies, and the military may have in shielding the truth behind extraterrestrial phenomena to further their own agendas,” says a statement (via the Hollywood Reporter).

The project will also take into account “the history of the phenomenon through cultural and political touchpoints, including shocking testimony from eyewitnesses across the country”, asking: “Why do we believe what we believe? And what is the elusive truth beyond this decades-long mystery?”

Driving the recent uptick in interest toward UFOs is a forthcoming unclassified report from the US Director of National Intelligence. The report — compiled from files that have been hidden away from the public eye — is set to be presented to Congress sometime this month, though it’s findings are, unsurprisingly, likely to be inconclusive.

The report is part of the Pentagon’s plans to make a series of new UFO discoveries public every six months, as first announced back in July 2020.