Earlier this year, rumours swirled that Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul had landed a mystery role in Clayface. Speculation immediately started running rampant, and while only a small number of fans suggested he could be playing the DCU's Batman, the prevailing theory was that the actor might portray a familiar comic book villain.
While Paul does appear in Clayface, his cameo is so brief that you'd be forgiven for missing it on a first or second viewing. It happens during one of the movie's best sequences, when Matt Hagen heads to Club Vesuvius to enact revenge on Markos Szabo, Mia, and the gangsters who attacked him.
Having mastered his new shapeshifting abilities, Matt takes out Szabo's men one by one, repeatedly changing his appearance as he brutally dispatches them.
Clayface repeatedly hints at Matt's murky past and confirms that Szabo and his goons knew his father. While fighting one of those gangsters, Matt very briefly transforms into his dad, shocking the guy he's attacking. His father is played by none other than Paul.
It's unclear whether the Black Mirror star just spent a few hours on set for fun or whether there were flashbacks exploring Matt's past with his father. Either way, it likely won't be until the Blu-ray is released that we can take a closer look at the actor's surprise DCU debut.
No one involved with the movie has commented on Paul's involvement, though James Gunn may eventually weigh in on Threads with an explanation. Regardless, the cameo is small enough that it definitely doesn't close the door on us seeing him take on a different role down the line.
We concluded our Clayface review by saying, "Tom Rhys Harries shines in Clayface, an uninspired and unoriginal movie that's too light on horror and lacking in comic book personality to be anything but forgettable. It should have been a game-changer for the genre; instead, it's DC's Morbius moment."
In Clayface, Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting-edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self, but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiralling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
The movie stars Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the "cult-favourite" villain from Gotham's rogues' gallery. The cast includes Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James.
Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface is now playing in theaters.