More photos from the set of Clayface have just landed, giving us a first look at Tom Rhys Harries as the movie's lead, Matt Hagen. As suspected, he was the one being stretchered into the hospital, likely after the attack that will leave him disfigured.
The aftermath is revealed here, as the photo shows his face covered in blood and clearly more than a little worse for wear. It's after this beatdown (which reportedly comes after a run-in with some Gotham City mobsters) that Hagen seeks out the formula that transforms him into the monstrous Clayface.
In the comics, Hagen was the second Clayface, and an adventurer who turned into a monster after encountering a radioactive pool of protoplasm.
That was changed in Batman: The Animated Series, where he was portrayed as an actor who used an anti-ageing cream to look younger. After getting on the wrong side of its creator, Roland Daggett, Hagen was doused in a vat of the stuff and became the "classic" Clayface we all know from the comics.
We're hearing that Ray Donovan star Eddie Marsan (who was spotted on set earlier today) is playing his manager, meaning DC Studios is pulling inspiration from the animated interpretation of the Batman villain.
"Well, I think it was just we needed DCU content," DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn recently said of why Clayface was added to the "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters" slate. "Mike Flanagan is somebody who I've been friendly with for a long time, and he wrote me about Clayface. He texted me about it really early on in my DC journey."
"Just being honest, I did not think that was something that was going to happen, but he came in and he pitched the idea and I was like, "Oh s---! That's cool." It's a body horror movie," the Superman director revealed. "It's a horror movie that, like any cool body horror movie, just happens to be in the DCU. And then he wrote the script, and the script was fantastic. We did not plan to do Clayface."
Asked whether this Clayface is the same one Rick Flag Sr. and Eric Frankenstein encountered—and seemingly killed—in Creature Commandos, Gunn teased, "I think that everyone will find that out."
Seeing as this is a body horror movie, it's possible the Clayface we spend time with won't necessarily be a "villain" who clashes with Gotham City's Dark Knight.
Clayface is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 11, 2026.