March 22, 2013, the hearts of killjoys everywhere broke as the emo punk rock band My Chemical Romance called it quits after 12 years together. Now, six years later, the band is back together, and the killjoys are overjoyed. Tickets for the first show of their tour, “Return,” sold out within minutes, but fans don’t have to put their black eyeliner away just yet. In the past weeks, several more dates have been added to the tour.

The breakup was announced on the band’s website with, “and now, like all great things, it has come time for [My Chemical Romance] to end.” Since then, fans have run wild with elaborate theories to determine the date of a possible reunion. Some of the most popular theories include the Smashing Pumpkins theory, the Danger Days theory and the Shrek theory.

The Smashing Pumpkins theory suggests that MCR would emulate the other band which had been together for 12 years before splitting up and returning after a six-year hiatus. This theory was born from lead singer Gerard Way and bassist Mikey Way stating in an interview that Smashing Pumpkins had been a big influence for MCR. Due to the fact that MCR had been together 12 years before splitting up, fans noticed the parallels and calculated that 2019 would be the year of the reunion.

Other fans fancied the Danger Days theory. Danger Days is MCR’s last studio album with a story set in a dystopian society of 2019 that must be saved by the band’s alter egos from the evil Better Living industries, also known as BL/ind.

Although all of our heroes, Gerard Way as Party Poison, Ray Toro as Jet-Star, Frank Iero as Fun Ghoul, and Mikey Way as Kobra Kid, die in a final battle at BL/ind headquarters, many fans believed that the setting of Danger Days was foreshadowing a reunion for this year.

Another one of the most popular theories is the Shrek theory. In a very strange coincidence, many large milestones for MCR have aligned with the release of each Shrek movie. In 2016 it was determined that Shrek 5 was set to be released in 2019 giving hope to the MCR-my that their beloved band would continue the trend and make a comeback.

During their time apart, each member continued on to other projects. Gerard Way continued the story of Danger Days with a comic book series titled The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which was published by Dark Horse Comics in 2013. He released a solo album titled Hesitant Alien in 2014, and his 2008 comic series The Umbrella Academy was adapted into a popular Netflix series earlier this year.

Mikey Way started the band Electric Century and released an album in 2016. Ray Toro and Frank Iero also released solo albums with Toro’s in 2016 and Iero’s in 2014, 2016, and 2019.

It is clear that fans were wishing for a 2019 reunion, and obviously the band got the memo. Although it’s unclear of what’s in store for the fabulous killjoys in this new era, as Dr. Death Defying said, “The future is bulletproof! The aftermath is secondary,” so they will just have to wait and see.