We've seen Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen under bandages and a mask, and these latest photos from the Liverpool set of Clayface give us a closer look at the bloody and broken face of the man who will ultimately transform into the shape-shifting Batman villain.
It looks like the Gotham City gangster, believed to be Jimmy "Red" McCoy (possibly on orders from Roland Daggett), really did a number on Hagen's face.
How will Hagen go from what we see below to the monstrous Clayface?
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?"
Clayface will also star 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.
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.".