‘Prelude To The End’: Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers and Hideo Kojima Lend Voices to a 9-Minute My Chemical Romance Film

My Chemical Romance have added a new chapter to their Black Parade anniversary celebrations with “Prelude To The End,” a nine-minute short film made with visual artist Lauren Tsai and voiced by Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers, game designer Hideo Kojima and actor John C. McGinley. It was released on October 30, 2026.

What happens in Prelude To The End

The film is built around “The End.,” the opening track of the band’s 2006 album The Black Parade. It follows Astrid, a student at a mysterious New England boarding school buried in rubbish. After school authorities throw away her cherished sketchbook, she chases it down a rubbish chute and lands in a surreal realm populated by forgotten ideas.

Polygon’s description fills in some of the early scenes. The Dean of the Paper Academy scolds Astrid for repeatedly drawing “that thing” and for falling behind her classmates. Astrid then listens to voicemails from worried friends and family as the song begins. Those messages are where several of the famous voices appear: Eilish plays Astrid’s friend and Bridgers her sister. Kojima, as “The Teacher,” scolds her over late Japanese homework. McGinley, best known for Scrubs, voices the Dean, and Tsai voices Astrid herself.

A fan project that came full circle

Tsai made animated fan videos set to MCR songs when she was younger, so the project is personal. “It was an absolute dream to work on this project for The Black Parade and The Dying World,” she said in a statement, adding that she was honoured Gerard Way had found inspiration in a world she created.

The film comes from her independent studio, UNREAL INC., and draws on The Dying World, her animated universe. Rolling Stone reports that she introduced it with a short at the Annecy Film Festival last year, then expanded it in an exhibition at Hollywood Forever Cemetery that closed last November. In that universe, Tsai has said, the Dying World is a “trash dump for discarded thoughts.” She described Astrid as someone who “might have slipped into being forgotten” while still alive.

That premise echoes The Black Parade itself. Its central character, the Patient, is carried through a realm of memories as his life fades. Polygon notes the parallel and speculates it could point to further storytelling from the band, though nothing of the kind has been announced.

Familiar collaborators, unusual cast

Several of the connections here predate the film. Tsai directed the animated video for Boygenius’s “Cool About It” in 2023, and Bridgers has long been open about her love for MCR, having covered “Welcome To The Black Parade” at SXSW in 2022. Kojima has said he saw the band live in 2006, and Tsai appeared in a small role in his game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

The soundtrack also reaches beyond the band. According to Rolling Stone, the short includes a live recording of Pascal Dusapin’s violin concerto Flying River, performed by Utopia Orchestra at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, with Giuseppe Mengoli conducting and Daniel Lozakovich on solo violin. A press release describes the film as exploring “the relationships we all hold with our creations, youth and the unwavering determination to become and express our truth,” a theme it ties to the band’s catalogue.

Where it fits in the anniversary run

“Prelude To The End” will screen before MCR’s final Hollywood Bowl shows on October 30 and 31, which close the US leg of the “Long Live The Black Parade” tour. The band have been playing the album in full along with songs from the rest of their catalogue. An expanded 20th anniversary edition arrived October 23 with six bonus tracks, including previously unreleased recordings from a 2007 show in Hoboken, New Jersey.

The tour has not been free of controversy. NME reports that the company behind the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has taken legal action against the band over lookalike uniforms used in a staged gunfight.

Fans hoping the film signals a new record have only a hope to hold onto. Way recently said the band have “always wanted to make another record,” adding, “I don’t know when it’ll be. But it’ll be awesome.” No plans have been confirmed, so for now “Prelude To The End” is a standalone piece, a short story about lost ideas that celebrates an album about endings.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

File photo: My Chemical Romance BDO Feb 4 07 1.jpg by Flickr user Michael Spencer, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.