The word “dark” may not be enough to describe what awaits audiences when Clayface makes it debut in 2026 for James Gunn and DC Studios. Promised by one of the lead actors that the film will push its R rating to the limit and maybe a little beyond, all signs point to The Batman spinoff setting the stage for a proper unveiling of one of the Caped Crusaders most visceral villains, but the film’s original writer won’t be involved in determining what the final product will look like.
In a recent conversation with ScreenRant, Mike Flanagan, having originated the Clayface script for DC for the DCU — not tabbed as the Elseworlds branch like HBO Max’s The Penguin — no longer has his hand in the project but did address questions about whether Matt Reeve’s The Batman (and the upcoming The Batman: Part II) influenced his creative process in any way when it came time to put his proverbial inkwell to work.
“No, when we first started talking about Clayface, I hadn’t seen what Matt [Reeves] was up to. So it went all the way back to “Feat of Clay”, that incredible two-parter with Ron Perlman voicing the character, which was so formative for me as a kid. Clayface, I had so much fun developing that with Matt, and then with James and Peter.
Well, given just how much he adored working with Reeves, Gunn and Peter Safran, what on Earth could’ve made Flanagan walk away from such a promising project like Clayface, having to have known there was an excellent chance it would turn into something diehard fans of Batman would scratch and claw for? The answer is as simple as time itself, or rather a lack of it.
“It was one of the great kind of sadnesses of my career that I’m so sorry that when it came time to make it, and they wanted to make this movie right away, I wasn’t available.”
Time Wasn’t On Clayface’s Side
Clayface reaches out in BTAS Feat of ClayImage via Warner Bros
While disappointing, the fact is that Flanagan is indeed in high demand. He’s a brilliant mind that is highly-respected in the horror genre and his credits include films like Doctor Sleep, Oculus and those that have gained cult followings on Netflix as well, such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher. It just so happens that the script for Clayface was so good that DC Studios wanted it filmed pronto, but Flanagan didn’t have availability on his schedule for pronto.
“[It’s] the only time this has ever happened to me where I was like, ‘I have to go make Carrie. There’s nothing I can do.’ They wanted the movie to happen, so I had to kind of do the thing that I’ve never had to do before, it’s like, ‘Well, here you go. Have fun making the movie and tell me how it goes.’
It’s heartbreaking to hear for a writer to make the decision to pass his creation on to the hands of others and pray they can bring the story to life as he visualized it when he was penning it initially — including not knowing what edits would be made and, even if so, being unable to do anything about it. But knowing who he passed the baton to, namely some of the best in the industry and close friends of his, no less, there’s at least some solace in the fact Clayface is on schedule, and early signs point to it being exactly what he’d imagined.
Clayface is scheduled to hit theaters around the world on Sept. 11, 2026.
Release Date
March 4, 2022
Runtime
176 minutes
Director
Matt Reeves
Writers
Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Robert Pattinson
Bruce Wayne / The Batman
