The DC Universe is headed to a new big-screen version of Gotham City in 2026 with the upcoming Clayface, and we now have a first look at Tom Rhys Harries in the lead role of Matt Hagen. Having debuted all the way back in 1940, Clayface, who has a clay-like body and shapeshifting abilities, is one of the best Batman villains never to have appeared in a live-action movie (though he has several animated appearances). While this continues what Joker started as a Dark Knight villain movie without the hero himself being involved, it promises to be a rather unique DC film.
There have been various iterations of Clayface over the years in the comics. Matt Hagen was the second, who debuted in the 1950s as a treasure hunter exposed to radioactive protoplasm. However, the DCU’s Matt is an actor, which takes from both Batman: The Animated Series and the original version of the character, Basil Karlo. The premise is that he’ll be disfigured by a gangster and undergo surgery that turns him into clay. Before that happens, we can see Matt’s non-clay face gracing the cover of an in-universe magazine, highlighting him as a star on the rise, via the Clayface movie’s official Instagram account:
The image is accompanied by the caption, “A face you won’t forget.” The magazine humorously appears to be called Most Glazed, and it pegs Matt Hagen as a major rising star in the acting industry.
A Clayface Trailer Should Be Coming Soon (Will It Prove The Doubters Wrong?)
Image courtesy of DC Comics
The first footage from Clayface was shown at CinemaCon last week, but remained exclusive to the event. However, the descriptions certainly sounded like it was doing the character justice, focusing on the transformation, including a heavily bandaged Matt, and a shadowy look at Clayface himself. It also seemingly goes hard into the body horror aspects of the character, which should really mean this is unlike any DC movie we’ve seen before. There’s no official confirmation on when the trailer will drop, but given that we know it’s ready, and the social media marketing is officially beginning, the online debut should be sooner rather than later.
There are some concerns regarding Clayface, largely because it is a Batman villain movie without Batman. While this did work for 2019’s Joker, which was a billion-dollar, Oscar-winning success, it’s not something that’s easy to pull off, and the character doesn’t have the same cultural cache as the Clown Prince of Crime. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how the story goes, but with the image highlighting Matt’s rising stardom, it should mean that his story really plays out as a horror-tinged tragedy, which could be very compelling to see.
The other good news is that this story originated with one of the modern masters of horror, Mike Flanagan, who pitched it to DC chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran. Flanagan is no longer attached to direct, instead being replaced by James Watkins (another horror vet), and the screenplay has undergone some rewrites by Hossein Amini, but it’s expected to remain true to his vision. That was strongly inspired by the classic Batman: The Animated Series two-part episode “Feat of Clay,” which also has Hagen as a skilled actor, and the reactions at CinemaCon very much suggested it was in keeping with that influence, but with even more horror.
With its genre and lower budget (as per THR, the production costs were reportedly around $40 million, making this one of the cheapest Marvel or DC movies we’ve seen in a long time), the metrics of success for Clayface will be different from most superhero movies. That’s a good thing, as a more diverse approach in these areas should only help combat superhero fatigue, and, hopefully, it’ll be as good as it all sounds so far.
Clayface will be released on October 23rd, 2026.
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