Reprise Records
Twenty years after its release, The Black Parade is still haunting the charts. My Chemical Romance’s death-haunted rock opera turned the band into one of the defining acts of 2000s emo-rock, built on generation-defining anthems like “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “Famous Last Words.” Released in October 2006, the album has just been reissued for its 20th anniversary, and the band marked the occasion with an unexpected artistic statement: an animated short film pairing two of pop’s biggest names with a cult video game creator.
A Short Film to Extend the Story
Titled Prelude to the End, the film runs just under ten minutes and was directed by visual artist Lauren Tsai, known for her illustration work and for her role in the series Alice in Borderland. The short pulls from the world she built in The Dying World, which premiered at the 2025 Annecy Film Festival, and lets it collide with the mythology of The Black Parade. It’s soundtracked by “The End.”, the album’s opening track, and follows Astrid, a boarding school student who slips into an uncanny world after her sketchbook is thrown in the trash.
Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers and Hideo Kojima Lend Their Voices
The voice cast is the real surprise here. Billie Eilish voices Astrid’s friend, Phoebe Bridgers her sister, and actor John C. McGinley rounds out the cast. But it’s Hideo Kojima, the Japanese creator behind the Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding franchises, who drew the most attention, voicing a character called “The Teacher.” Pairing an American rock band with one of gaming’s most singular auteurs sums up the spirit of the project, conceived as a standalone piece of art rather than a plain promotional video.
The film’s release immediately set the band’s most devoted fans theorising. Several have read it as a nod to The Paper Kingdom, the album My Chemical Romance were reportedly working on before their first breakup in 2013, which never saw the light of day. The band hasn’t confirmed any direct connection, but has always thrived on mystery and theatrical stagecraft around its releases — part of its identity as much as the music itself.
A Reissue Built to Rival Olivia Rodrigo
The film ties in with the release, days earlier, of The Black Parade (20th Anniversary Edition), a reissue adding six previously unreleased tracks to the original album and wrapped in new artwork by James Jean, the illustrator who has shaped the record’s visual identity since its original release. As whatlisten reported when the reissue was first announced, the band is hoping the campaign can land them their first-ever US albums chart number one, in a head-to-head race against an Olivia Rodrigo release landing the very same week.
Hollywood Bowl Caps a Triumphant Run
Prelude to the End screened ahead of the band’s final two anniversary-tour shows, held October 30 and 31 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. That tour, which took the band through some of Europe and North America’s biggest stadiums this year, including a much-talked-about stop at London’s Wembley Stadium this summer, has confirmed just how far My Chemical Romance’s comeback has travelled: twenty years on, The Black Parade remains one of its generation’s most unifying rock records, one still capable of filling stadiums and of bringing together, for a single short film, artists as different as pop, indie songwriting and video games.
For a band that broke up in 2013 before reuniting six years later, the arc is almost unexpected: rather than simply touring the hits for nostalgia’s sake, My Chemical Romance keep producing original work around their most iconic record, sustaining a relationship with their audience that goes well beyond the standard nostalgia tour.
