Earlier this week, the news broke that Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries will play the title character in DC Studios' Clayface. The movie is based on a story by The Fall of the House of Usher's Mike Flanagan, with Eden Lake and Speak No Evil director James Watkins at the helm.
Clayface was not among the projects announced by DC Studios at the start of 2023, making it a surprise addition to the "Chapter 1 - Gods and Monsters" slate.
While James Gunn has said repeatedly that it's all about story when it comes to which DCU projects receive the green light, the second half of 2026 was looking awfully quiet for the franchise (Lanterns is expected to premiere on HBO Max in the Spring; Supergirl follows in the summer). And, after Sgt. Rock's postponement, nothing has been announced for 2027.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Gunn was asked why Clayface was brought into the DCU rather than being an Elseworlds title.
"Well, I think it was just we needed DCU content," the Superman director admitted. "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," Gunn teased. "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."
Drive writer Hossein Amini penned the latest draft of Clayface. Addressing that, Gunn said, "The new script is great. It's great. I mean, the first script was great, and then this new draft is even better. The movie's definitely getting made."
Pushed on whether this Clayface is the same one Rick Flag Sr. and Eric Frankenstein encountered in Creature Commandos, Gunn revealed, "I think that everyone will find that out."
Few plot details have been revealed, but we have learned that Matt Hagen will be front and centre. In the comics, he was the second Clayface, and an adventurer who turned into a monster after encountering a radioactive pool of protoplasm.
That was changed for 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 is doused in a vat of the stuff and becomes the "classic" Clayface you all know from the comics.
Clayface is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 11, 2026.