Brad Bird's 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Project May Become Eight-Episode Miniseries

At San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Brad Bird dropped a significant update on a project that has lingered in development for nearly two decades. The director of The Incredibles and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol revealed during his "My Cinematic Journey" panel that his long-planned 1906 San Francisco earthquake film may instead take shape as an eight-episode miniseries. Bird originally intended the project to serve as his live-action feature debut back in 2007, but the scope of the historical event proved too vast for a single movie. This pivot to a serialized format could finally give the material the breathing room it has always demanded.

Brad Bird’s reputation for mixing big‑scale visuals with deep character arcs makes this news a must‑watch. This project is set against the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a disaster rarely covered with such investment and ambition. Fans will benefit from a full‑length miniseries, giving them the chance to dig into personal stories that a single two‑hour film would cut short. The production is still in its infancy, but Bird’s clear devotion hints it could follow Ray Gunn, the animated feature due to hit Netflix this fall.

The 1906 Project's Long Road to a Miniseries

Bird has been developing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake project since 2007, originally envisioning it as his live-action feature debut. He ultimately directed Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol instead, but the earthquake project never fully left his radar. At the SDCC panel, hosted by Collider editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub, Bird addressed persistent rumors that budget concerns killed the film version. He dismissed those reports as "BS stories online," explaining that the real obstacle was narrative rather than financial.

"The deeper I dug, the more stuff [I'd find]," Bird said, describing a research process that kept expanding the story's scope until a single film felt impossible.

Brad Bird, Director

That realization led him to consider a miniseries format, which would allow the story to unfold across approximately eight episodes. Bird emphasized that the production would still require a massive budget because "it has to be big like a movie," but the episodic structure solves the compression problem. The narrative would cover not just the earthquake itself but the catastrophic fire that followed, which Bird noted was fed by gale-force winds that turned the blaze into a secondary disaster of nearly equal proportions. This dual catastrophe — seismic upheaval followed by a wind-driven inferno — provides a natural two-act structure that a miniseries can explore in detail.

<strong>Eight Episodes to Shake Up History</strong>

Bird's description of the project reveals why the miniseries approach suits this material.

"It's probably like eight episodes. But it has the greatest build ever. It's not just the earthquake, it's the fire after earthquake," he told the SDCC audience.

Brad Bird, Director

The tag "greatest build ever" signals a slow‑burn arc that builds tension over several episodes, a pacing that a tight three‑act film usually forces to tighten. With a miniseries format, the quake can slot in as a midpoint climax instead of the single headline event. Later installments can spotlight the conflagration, the frantic rescues, the political fallout, and the intimate human tales that broad disaster films tend to gloss over.

For the viewer, this means a more immersive experience. Instead of a highlights reel of destruction, the series could follow specific characters — firefighters, city officials, ordinary residents — through days of unfolding crisis. The gale-force winds that fed the fire add a terrifying environmental antagonist that persists beyond the initial shaking. Bird's insistence on a movie-scale budget per episode also signals visual ambition: practical effects, period-accurate San Francisco reconstruction, and large-scale disaster sequences that streaming budgets have only recently begun to support. If executed as described, this could set a new benchmark for historical disaster storytelling on television.

Bird's Current Slate: Ray Gunn, Incredibles 3, and a Hybrid Film

The 1906 miniseries sits alongside several other active projects in Bird's pipeline. His immediate next release is Ray Gunn, an animated feature arriving on Netflix in fall 2026. Meanwhile, Incredibles 3 is moving forward with Pete Sohn (Elemental) directing, while Bird serves as co-writer and producer alongside Dana Murray. Composer Michael Giacchino, a longtime Bird collaborator who recently scored Spider-Man: Brand New Day, made a surprise appearance at the panel. When Giacchino playfully asked who would score the sequel, Bird joked about "the ghost of Jerry Goldsmith" before deadpanning, "We'll talk about it" — a strong indication Giacchino will return for the franchise's next installment.

Bird also teased another live-action/animation hybrid film in development that he would direct, which could potentially arrive before the 1906 miniseries.

"It's live-action, but there's animation in it," he said, offering no further details.

Brad Bird, Director

This hybrid approach aligns with Bird's history of blending mediums — think of the animated sequences in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's Kremlin infiltration or the stylized credits of his Pixar films. If that project moves faster than the massive 1906 production, it could serve as Bird's actual live-action directorial follow-up to Ghost Protocol, with the earthquake miniseries following as a more ambitious, long-form endeavor.

<strong>Why Disney Shouldn’t Botch This</strong>

Bird's pivot to a miniseries format feels like the right creative decision for material this sprawling. The 1906 earthquake and fire constitute a multi-day catastrophe with political, social, and human dimensions that a feature film can only skim. Eight episodes allow for the kind of ensemble storytelling that HBO's Chernobyl or Apple's Masters of the Air achieved — disaster as a lens on society, not just a spectacle. Bird's dismissal of budget rumors also suggests he has a clear vision of what the production requires and isn't letting conventional wisdom dictate the format. The real question is whether a studio or streamer will commit to the "movie-scale budget per episode" he describes.

For fans of Bird's work, the broader takeaway is reassuring: he remains actively engaged across animation, live-action, and hybrid forms. Incredibles 3 in capable hands with Sohn and Giacchino, Ray Gunn arriving this year, a mysterious hybrid film brewing, and now a passion project finally finding its proper shape. The 1906 miniseries may still be years away, but Bird's SDCC comments confirm it hasn't joined the graveyard of "development hell" projects — it's evolving. The next milestone will be a formal greenlight and platform announcement, which will signal whether the industry shares Bird's conviction that this story deserves the canvas he's finally chosen for it.