Last month, we learned that Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries will play the lead character in DC Studios' Clayface. The movie is based on a story by The Fall of the House of Usher's Mike Flanagan (Drive writer Hossein Amini penned the latest draft), with 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. However, for James Gunn, it's all about story when it comes to which DCU projects receive the green light, and this one fit the bill in the filmmaker and studio executive's eyes.
Nexus Point News has shared some additional details today, confirming that Clayface will revolve around Matt Hagen, with an amalgamation of his and Basil Karlo's comic book backstory.
The site reveals that, "Hagen is a handsome, up and coming actor who’s attacked and disfigured. Originally from Gotham, he moves to Hollywood to escape his troubled past and begin a career as an actor. With his disfigurement, his career and outlet as an actor is ruined and is eventually transformed into a shapeshifting monster."
In Clayface, Hagen's love interest will be Dr. Caitlin Bates, an original character created for the DCU. She's the "CEO of a biotech startup seeking to create cutting edge medicine and medical technology. Bates sees Hagen as a way to grow her company and cure his condition. Throughout the process she falls in love with him while her fiance John grows suspicious of their relationship."
As for John, he's "a detective and committed to Caitlin and his job." Clayface's main antagonist will be an unnamed crime boss, who, like Caitlin and John, will be a character created specifically for the movie.
Unfortunately, it sounds like Clayface will be lacking connections to the wider DCU, as the site has learned that it will not feature any "recognizable DC characters and will primarily consist of original characters." That means no Batman, and likely no surprise appearances from the Dark Knight's rogues gallery.
That's going to disappoint many fans, but if the movie takes place primarily in Hollywood, then there won't be much of an opportunity for us to encounter the likes of The Joker, Killer Croc, and Scarecrow, anyway. It's currently unclear how Clayface will explain the villain's presence in Creature Commandos.
The standalone nature of the project may also be down to the fact that this movie was, according to the site, originally set in the same world as The Batman.
During a recent interview, 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."
Clayface is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 11, 2026.