Josh Gates Investigates Dracula, UFOs, and Lincoln in First ‘Expedition Files’ Trailer Ahead of April 1 Return [Exclusive]

It’s time to open up the Expedition Files again. For the fourth season, explorer and storyteller Josh Gates is taking a look into history’s biggest mysteries, including Dracula, UFOs, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Collider is proud to exclusively reveal the first trailer for Season 4 of Expedition Files, which will premiere on Discovery on April 1, 2026.

In the first trailer, Gates goes over the ancient mysteries the show will look at in the season to come. That includes the ultimate fate of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. History records that Booth was hunted down near Bowling Green, Virginia, two weeks after the assassination, and shot to death by Union troops; however, a man allegedly claiming to be Booth resurfaced decades later; his preserved corpse was later exhibited as a carnival sideshow. This season will also explore the hunt for Noah’s Ark; the mystery of the 2001 anthrax attacks; the historicity of Count Dracula; plus the kraken, declassified UFO secrets, Atlantis, Cold War spies, ghost armies of World War II, and much, much more.

Is Dracula a Historical Figure?

Vlad Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler, was a 15th-century prince of Wallachia (a region of Romania that contains what is now Transylvania). He was noted for his resistance to the encroaching Ottoman Empire and for his brutality; his nickname stems from his propensity for having his foes impaled. Bram Stoker was very loosely inspired by the legends surrounding Vlad when he wrote Dracula in 1899, although he was largely unfamiliar with the historical facts; vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing does suggest, in passing, that Count Dracula and the Impaler are one and the same. Some later Dracula films make an explicit connection between the two; Dracula’s history as the ruler of Wallachia is covered in the prologue of 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and sets the character up with a fictional lost love that he spends the rest of the film pursuing. Likewise, 2014’s Dracula Untold blends fact and fiction to present Vlad’s history as an origin story for Dracula.

Expedition Files is a spin-off of Gates’ Discovery flagship series, Expedition Unknown. While Expedition Files is narrated by Gates from a studio, Expedition Unknown sends the host out into the field to search for historical mysteries in person. The 16th season of Expedition Unknown premiered late last year and featured a special two-part episode in which Gates explored the hidden depths of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Season 4 of Expedition Files will premiere on Discovery on April 1, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Release Date

October 30, 2024

Network

Discovery