Brad Bird Says His Long-Developing 1906 Earthquake Project Could Work as an Eight-Episode TV Miniseries

Brad Bird has spent his career delivering incredible animated and live-action films, but television is one medium he hasn’t tackled yet.

That could eventually change thanks to one passion project he’s been trying to bring to life for nearly two decades.

During the “Brad Bird: My Cinematic Journey” panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Bird revealed that his long-gestating adaptation of 1906 may actually work better as a television miniseries than as a feature film.

The conversation started after Patton Oswalt appeared in a video message asking Bird if he had ever considered making a multi-episode project. Oswalt also couldn’t resist throwing in one more question: “and also Ratatouille 2?”

Bird admitted that he already has a story in mind that fits the format perfectly.

“Actually yeah, I have a project that, it’s hard to explain, but it would lend itself to multiple episodes. It has to do with the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.”

The filmmaker has been attached to an adaptation of James Dalessandro’s 2004 historical novel since 2007.

The story chronicles the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the fires that followed, a disaster that claimed more than 3,000 lives and destroyed over 80% of the city.

Over the years, fans have heard plenty of rumors about why the movie never happened, one of which had to do with high costs, but Bird says most of those stories simply aren’t true.

“There’s a lotta BS on the internet about the reason it didn’t happen. They said the budget went out of control or something like that. We never got that far.”

According to Bird, the biggest obstacle wasn’t money. It was the story itself.

As he researched the era, he kept uncovering incredible historical events and personal stories that felt impossible to leave out.

He compared the creative process to loading a hot air balloon, where every fascinating new discovery added more weight and made it harder for the project to ever get off the ground.

“The problem with it is, the more you research that time, the more amazing it is,” Bird continued. “And the stories that are happening are insane.

“The deeper I dug, the more stuff I [had to include]. I was like, ‘This has to be in it!’ but it has to be big like a movie.”

That’s exactly why Bird now feels a limited series could be the perfect home for the adaptation. It would give him enough time to explore the historical details while still delivering the cinematic scale the story deserves.

When asked whether the project would stretch across multiple seasons or remain a one-and-done series, Bird said he imagines it running for eight episodes.

The panel also included a fun surprise when acclaimed composer Michael Giacchino, Bird’s longtime collaborator on The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Ray Gunn, joined the conversation midway through the presentation.

Giacchino, who also composed The Fantastic Four: The First Steps and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, tried to coax Bird into revealing something about The Incredibles 3 through both a prerecorded video and an appearance on stage.

Bird didn’t give fans much to chew on beyond confirming that he’s writing the film while working alongside director Peter Sohn.

We then got an early look at the first seven minutes of Ray Gunn, Bird’s stylish animated spy noir that previously screened at Annecy, and what we saw was pretty awesome! I’m very excited about that movie.

It features the voices of Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits, the Netflix film is set to premiere on December 18.

As for 1906, it’s exciting to hear Bird still hasn’t given up on the project.

An eight-episode event series actually sounds like an ideal way to tell such an expansive story, giving the history, spectacle, and human drama the room they need to breathe. Hopefully this is the version that finally makes it to the screen.