My Chemical Romance have expanded the 20th-anniversary celebration of their third album, The Black Parade, with Prelude to the End, a seven-minute animated short featuring Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers, Hideo Kojima and John C. McGinley.

Released Thursday, Oct. 29, the film was directed by visual artist Lauren Tsai and combines stop-motion with hand-drawn animation. It arrives after an expanded edition of The Black Parade, featuring bonus tracks, was released the previous week.

Set to “The End,” the turbulent opening track from the concept album, Prelude to the End centers on Astrid, a student voiced by Tsai. Astrid attends the Paper Academy, a repressive New England boarding school where her sketchbook is confiscated by the headmaster.

Her attempt to recover the book sends her tumbling into a garbage chute and into a strange trash world. There, she becomes tethered to a giant crow and takes flight, only for a rogue stuffed animal to shoot them out of the sky. Astrid ultimately lands back in the school’s grim reality.

The story’s voice cast places Bridgers in the role of Astrid’s sister, while Eilish plays her friend. Kojima voices a strict Japanese teacher, and McGinley portrays the school’s authoritarian dean.

Astrid Returns

Prelude to the End serves as a sequel of sorts to Tsai’s 2025 animated short, The Dying World Part One: Forgetting. That film, which also followed the wide-eyed Astrid, debuted at the Annecy Festival last June.

The new chapter brings Astrid up against the Paper Academy’s three rules: “Don’t get hurt,” “No delusions” and “All trash is taken care of.” The dean also tells her that, because she is “sick,” she will never heal if she is injured. Frustrated and dejected, Astrid pokes a hole in her hand before beginning her journey through the trash chute.

According to a press release, the short examines people’s relationships with their creations and youth, as well as the determination to become and express their truth. The release connects that final idea to a recurring theme across My Chemical Romance’s catalog.

The film also incorporates a live recording of Pascal Dusapin’s Flying River, Violin Concerto, performed by the Utopia Orchestra at the Foundation Louis Vuitton.

A Long-Held My Chemical Romance Ambition

For Tsai, the collaboration fulfilled an ambition that began when she was making her own animated fan videos for My Chemical Romance songs as a child.

“It was an absolute dream to work on this project for The Black Parade and The Dying World,” Tsai said in a statement. “I deeply respect MCR and Gerard’s creative legacy. It has been an honor for him to find inspiration in a world that I’ve created, in the same way I have always admired the worlds that he has built throughout his career.”

Tsai’s previous work includes appearances in the shows Legion and Rooster. She also directed the animated video for “Cool About It,” the 2023 Boygenius song by the trio of Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.

ShowBiz Take

Prelude to the End gives My Chemical Romance’s anniversary campaign a narrative and visual dimension beyond an expanded album release. By setting music from The Black Parade inside Tsai’s existing Dying World universe, the short connects the band’s work with a filmmaker whose relationship to that music began through childhood fan animation.

The project also stands out for the range of its voice ensemble, bringing Eilish and Bridgers into the same animated story as Kojima and McGinley. Yet the central focus remains Astrid’s fight to protect her creativity inside an institution governed by rigid rules—an idea the film’s press release directly links to themes of creation, youth and self-expression.

The release comes after two years of sold-out stadium shows celebrating The Black Parade. Those shows follow the band’s original 2001-2013 run, and My Chemical Romance are considered likely contenders for a high position on the Billboard 200 chart dated Nov. 6.

What Happens Next?

Prelude to the End will move from its standalone release to the concert setting. The film is scheduled to screen before the final upcoming dates of My Chemical Romance’s five-night Hollywood Bowl residency in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31.