My Chemical Romance Release Prelude To The End Short Film Voiced By Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish, & More

My Chemical Romance have been enjoying the most beautiful victory lap. For the past few years, they've been celebrating and expanding the world of their third studio album, The Black Parade, which turned 20 last week. Today, they've released a short film titled Prelude To The End, a collaboration with visual artist Lauren Tsai.

The film fuses Tsai's own visual universe The Dying World, which she debuted as a short film at the 2025 Annecy Film Festival, with My Chemical Romance's intricate mythology. It's soundtracked by The Black Parade's opening song, "The End," and features a remarkable voice cast. Tsai voices the protagonist Astrid, alongside Billie Eilish as Astrid's friend, Phoebe Bridgers as her sister, Hideo Kojima as the Teacher, and f as the Dean. The film also features a live recording of Pascal Dusapin's Flying River, Violin Concerto, performed by the Utopia Orchestra at Fondation Louis Vuitton, conducted by Giuseppe Mengoli, with Daniel Lozakovich on solo violin.

The story follows Astrid, a student at an eerie New England boarding school where some dark, weird shit is clearly going on. The school's faculty tries to silence Astrid's creativity? imagination? emotions? autonomy? by throwing away her sketchbook. Astrid goes after it, tumbling down a trash chute and into what the press release describes as "a world inhabited by forgotten ideas," where she's confronted with her own.

The film's opening shot introduces the school as Paper Academy. This is important: it could be a connection to The Paper Kingdom, the unfinished album My Chemical Romance were working on around the time the band broke up. Whether this is a deliberate reference, a breadcrumb pointing toward something new, or simply a name that fits the film's world remains unclear. But it's freaking exciting nonetheless. It's been a delight diving into Reddit threads.

My Chemical Romance are vying for their first-ever #1 album with the new The Black Parade reissue, which could top the chart if it outsells Olivia Rodrigo. Rodrigo also seems to be rooting for them; she posted from one of MCR's shows this week. The band will play their final Los Angeles shows this weekend — 10/30 and 10/31 — while Phoebe Bridgers is also in town for a Halloween merch pop-up. Bridgers released a live EP on Tidal yesterday, too, making her appearance in Prelude To The End feel like its all connected.

Prelude To The End will be screened ahead of My Chem's final LA dates at the Hollywood Bowl. Watch it below.