Gotham City. The home of criminals like Joker, Poison Ivy, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze, as well as heroes like Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, Robin, and, of course, Batman. Finally, we have confirmation that the city protected by the Caped Crusader will be the setting of an upcoming film.
Creature Commandos started the DCU in December of 2024, and took us to the fictional country of Pokolistan and other locations throughout the DCU. One of those locations was Gotham City, albeit very briefly. It also gave us our first look at Batman within the DCU, but don’t expect that to be a perfect indicator of what the Dark Knight will look like when he is eventually fully revealed.
Metropolis is the next iconic location to be explored when Superman releases in July of this year, then will likely be explored further in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in June of 2026.
On September 11, 2026, Clayface will explore the world of Gotham City.
DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran spoke to The Wrap to reveal the setting of the movie.
“It fits nicely within the DCU, and it takes us into the world of Gotham. So, the opportunity to make a horror movie for DC was kind of like a gift.”
It’s no surprise that Gotham City is the location for DC’s first horror movie especially considering who that story is about. Gotham is full of different terrifying characters. Two-Face, Man Bat, The Phantasm, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Professor Pyg, and Joker are just a few scary characters that roam the streets of Gotham on a regular basis.
Recently, James Watkins was confirmed to be the director for Clayface by The Hollywood Reporter. They also stated their, “Sources say the film is budgeted at $40 million and is a Hollywood horror tale centering on 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.”
The movie has also been recently confirmed to have an R rating attached to it.
"One of the things Peter and I talked about when we first got the script is if we were producing movies five years ago, like when we were doing Belko Experiment and all of that stuff, and somebody had brought us this horror script called Clayface about this guy, we would have died to have produced this movie."
"Because it was just a really excellent body horror script. And the fact that it's in the DCU is just a plus. Then we have Clayface: pure f***ing horror. Like totally real. Their version of that movie, it is so real and true and psychological and body horror and gross. It's definitely R-rated."
It’s well known that Clayface was a surprise idea that was not originally part of Gunn’s and DC Studios’ plan for Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. The script written by Mike Flanagan was apparently so good, that Gunn and Safran decided to greenlight and streamline the movie for a very quick release after its initial announcement.
Are you excited to see Gotham City in the DCU? Is Clayface the right choice for the famous fictional city to make its debut? Let us know in the comments!