History’s ‘Project Blue Book’ Trailer Released

The first trailer for the History channel’s UFO series Project Blue Book has been released, and it features some familiar faces.

Among the many recognizable actors in the series are Legends of Tomorrow’s Neal McDonough and iZombie’s Malcolm Goodwin.

The series is based on the real life Project Blue Book, which was sanctioned by the United States Air Force in the 1950s after an increase in unexplained aircraft sightings.

Project Blue Book the series stars Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) as Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a college professor who finds himself recruited by the U.S. Air Force to lead the covert research project and investigate the many reported UFO sightings.

According to Deadline, each episode of the show will borrow from actual Project Blue Book files, fusing real-life events with extraterrestrial conjecture.

The series is executive produced by Robert Zemeckis, who is well-known for having directed some of the greatest films of all time, such as Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away.

Interestingly though, Zemeckis also directed a few episodes of Tales from the Crypt and helped with the story for the series’ 1996 film Bordello of Blood.

While Project Blue Book blends a bit of fiction in with the real-life events, the actual Project Blue Book was shut down in 1969.

Following its closure, the U.S. Air Force concluded that “no UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security.”

The military branch also asserted that “there was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge,” and that “there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ were extraterrestrial vehicles.”

While it’s not entirely clear by the first look trailer, there does seem to be a bit of conspiracy at play in Project Blue Book the series. Much of the imagery and tension would suggest that maybe the show will lean heavy on the sci-fi side.

This is not the History channel’s first foray into extraterrestrial themes, as the network has been airing the wildly popular Ancient Aliens series since 2010. (It should be noted, however, that the pilot episode for the series actually first aired in March 2009.)

At this time, Project Blue Book does not appear to have an official premiere date, but it will likely debut sometime in 2018.