The first promotional image for DC Studios' Clayface movie has been revealed ahead of the teaser trailer's release.
The photo isn't particularly exciting (they were never going to start with a reveal of the monstrous villain of the title), but it does give us a first look at star Tom Rhys Harries as struggling actor Matt Hagen via an in-universe magazine cover.
The trailer screened for those in attendance at CinemaCon last week. You can check out a breakdown via Variety below.
"The trailer shows Matt sitting in a hospital bed with a bandaged, bloody face. He’s attacked by a knife-wielding assailant and has mysterious chemicals pumped into him, giving him his powers. Matt’s face changes repeatedly, showing him without an eye or mouth at times, and in the final moments he’s sitting in a bathtub and wipes away his entire face. There’s also a shadowy shot of him with a giant, mace-shaped fist, just like how he would pummel Batman in the DC comics."
Whether this will be the same as the trailer that will be released online remains to be seen, but we may find out very soon. Although nothing has been confirmed, rumors suggest that the teaser will arrive this Wednesday, April 22.
Clayface also stars Max Minghella (The Social Network, The Handmaid's Tale) as John, a Gotham City detective who becomes suspicious of his fiancé Caitlin's relationship with Matt Hagen. Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Mickey 17) plays Caitlin Bates, a biotech CEO who treats Matt after he's left disfigured by a mobster.
The story will reportedly "center on an ascending actor whose face is disfigured by a gangster. As a last resort, the actor turns to a fringe Elizabeth Holmes-style scientist for help. At first, the experiment is a successful but … well, it wouldn’t be a horror movie if the story ended right there, would it?"
Speak No Evil director James Watkins will helm the project, while James Gunn will produce alongside Peter Safran and The Batman director Matt Reeves, with Lynn Harris and Chantal Nong serving as executive producers.
Mike Flanagan penned the script, but was reportedly unavailable to direct due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series. Screenwriter Hossein Amini, best known for penning 2011’s Drive, was recently tapped to do some rewrites. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.
Safran shared a few new details on the Flanagan script, noting that Clayface is indeed going to be a full-on horror movie in the same vein as David Cronenberg's The Fly, and more recently, we learned that the movie will also take more than a little inspiration from Coralie Fargeat's body horror hit, The Substance.
"Clayface, you see, is a Hollywood horror story, according to our sources, using the most popular incarnation of the villain – a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay.".