Project UFO: Release Date, Trailer & Where to Stream

March 26, 2025

Even before Netflix announced its upcoming Polish show, Project UFO, unidentified flying objects were having a moment.

UFO talk in the U.S. has long existed, going back to at least 1947. That’s when a commercial pilot’s report of a strange aerial sighting over Washington’s Mount Rainier gave birth to a “flying saucer” craze. But it’s picked up steam in recent years, amplified by a Pentagon whistleblower’s 2023 testimony in front of Congress that the U.S. government is in possession of UAPs — or, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena — and has recovered non-human “biologics” from alleged crash sites. Since then, claims of unusual flying objects have shot up, including a rash of so-called “mystery drones” that streaked across New Jersey’s skies late last year.

Those objects, according to the White House, were ultimately identified as legal drones flown with Federal Aviation Administration permission. But other UAPs may lack a neat explanation. In a November report, the federal office tasked with reviewing UAP reports from military personnel and federal agencies announced it had received 757 new UAP incident reports from May 2023 to June 2024 alone. While the office said it had “discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology,” it flagged that 21 UAP cases “merit further analysis” due to “anomalous characteristics and/or behaviors.” The report also noted that 444 cases weren’t even analyzed due to a lack of “sufficient data.”

All combined, that’s a lot of aerial intrigue. And with UFOs and aliens moving from grocery store tabloid talk to orbiting mainstream news cycles — even Sabrina Carpenter took a cue with her 2024 VMAs alien makeout session — Project UFO could be beaming onto U.S. screens at just the right time.

Inspired by the real media response to an alleged UFO landing in Poland, Project UFO is already being called “the Polish Stranger Things,” thanks to a heavy helping of Cold War paranoia and eerie small-town landscapes. Add to that political conspiracies, whiffs of government cover-ups, and an ominous synth track, and we’ve also got some strong The X-Files meets Netflix’s Dark vibes.

In the mood for a new sci-fi mini-series that sets the stage for your inevitable descent into binging UFO documentaries? Here’s what we know so far about Project UFO, including when it’s coming to Netflix and what real events could have inspired it.

When will Project UFO come out?

The first of four episodes comes out on April 16, 2025.

Where can I watch Project UFO?

It’s a Netflix series, meaning Project UFO can only be streamed there.

What is Project UFO about?

Project UFO (or Projekt UFO) is a 1980s-set Polish limited series that, per Vogue Poland, was inspired by the real public response to an alleged UFO landing in a small Polish town. While the details of that episode aren’t cited, the show could very well have been informed by what’s known within the crop circle set as the “Emilcin Abduction.”

In 1978, an older farmer named Jan Wolski in Emilcin, a small town in Poland, told family and friends that he’d been approached by two aliens — literally little green men, per his description in a later interview. The beings, according to Wolski, led him from his horse-drawn cart to a UFO waiting in a clearing, where they examined and released him. Shortly after, a “UFOlogist” came to Emilcin to investigate and promote the story for publicity, according to a Polish culture platform run by The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a Polish arts organization. His coverage earned national attention and became fodder for everything from a documentary and a book to postcards. In 2005, a memorial to commemorate the incident was put up near Emilcin bearing the inscription “Prawda nas jeszcze zadziwi” — or, roughly translated to English, “the truth will surprise us yet.”

First-time Polish director Kasper Bajon — the writer behind Polish Netflix project High Water — focuses his mini-series on two fictional characters: one, the host of a Close Encounters-style TV show, the other, an extraterrestrial enthusiast. After a reported UFO landing in a small Polish town grips the nation, the two men get caught up in the search for answers — and, unwittingly, in a conspiracy led by a political opportunist who sees the public’s UFO fears as an entry to seizing power.

Speaking to a Central and Eastern Europe network of TV reporters, Bajon said: “Our series talks about the longing for mystery and discovering the truth. It is also a story about loneliness — not only here on Earth, but in the universe. Younger viewers in the series can see a story about fake news and how quickly, like a virus, they spread and appropriate the truth.”

Netflix is releasing an English-dubbed version in April, but if you find dubs distracting, you’ll want to watch this one with subtitles. (Assuming you don’t speak Polish, that is!)

Is Project UFO a remake?

No, Project UFO isn’t a remake. Its name may remind some of the 1978 American TV series Project U.F.O., but the two aren’t directly related beyond their shared focus on UFO investigations.

Like the new series, the show from the ‘70s also had some loose IRL inspiration. Airing on NBC, it was based on real-life U.S. Air Force investigations into UFO sightings — specifically Project Blue Book, a classified military program that studied reports of unidentified flying objects from 1952 to 1969.