Steven Spielberg believes humanity will find out whether “there is life beyond earth” in his lifetime.Speaking at the London premiere of his new sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day, the Oscar-winning director gave a definitive answer to whether humans would eventually learn they were not alone.“Yes,” he told the BBC. “And I’ll accept whatever they are.”Disclosure Day stars Emily Blunt as Kansas City meteorologist Margaret Fairchild who teams up with cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner, played by Josh O’Connor, to uncover a government conspiracy that threatens to change human history forever. It also features Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, and Wyatt Russell.Spielberg, who previously directed sci-fi classics like ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both of which explored humanity’s fascination with extraterrestrial life and contact with alien visitors, also said that his perspective on extraterrestrial life had changed over time. “My view has become more realistic,” he said. “There’s a lot of mystery and things that are undisclosed but I have become more optimistic that people are going to be able to discover things that we have not been allowed to discover.”Wyatt Russell, Eve Hewson, Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Steven Spielberg, Josh O'Connor, and Colman Domingo attend the UK premiere of ‘Disclosure Day’ (PA)Blunt said she hoped confirmation of extraterrestrial life would leave people “astonished, humbled and awestruck”.“It’s mathematically insane to imagine we are the only civilisation,” she said, adding that one of the film’s messages was “not to be afraid by what we don’t know”.O’Connor said he also believed there was likely “something out there”, although he was less certain humanity would discover it anytime soon. “The sense of mystery used to be so strong and we’ve lost that now,” he said. Domingo, meanwhile, said the possibility of extraterrestrial life felt almost inevitable when looking at the scale of the universe. “We all go out and see stars and I can imagine that there’s someone out there looking at me,” the Euphoria star said, adding that any proof of alien life “might upend some things in society, but that’s not that bad given how polarised the world is right now.”Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Steven Spielberg believes humanity will find the answer to whether ‘there is life beyond earth’ in his lifetime (Universal Studios)Critics are praising Disclosure Day, with early reviews describing it as “Spielberg’s best film in 20 years” and “thrilling, funny, deeply emotional and impeccably acted”. Many fans are convinced that the film is a secret sequel to his 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, starring Richard Dreyfuss as a man from small-town Indiana whose life changes after he encounters a UFO. The trailer for Disclosure Day references Roswell – where conspiracy theorists believe a UFO crashed in New Mexico in 1947 – and in the closing moments of the film, a flying saucer appears to emerge from the sky, which fans say looks like a direct nod to a similar scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.Disclosure Day is due to hit cinemas on 12 June.