It positive is a good time to be a Batman villain. Icons like Poison Ivy are taking on extra comics by the day, whereas The Penguin has been elevated to official HBO mobster standing. Even the Joker is… uh, perhaps that is a nasty instance, however the level is that a few of The Darkish Knight’s most well-known enemies are mockingly getting their time to shine. There’s one Gotham goon, although, that’s getting a full-on solo film later this yr, even though, earlier than mentioned film, some Batfans may not have even heard of him.
I am speaking, in fact, about Clayface, the titular star of the DC Cinematic Universe’s third official movie, and the primary of its type to fall into the horror style. At 86 years previous, Clayface is a wealthy and engaging DC villain, and the non-comics studying world is in for an entire new notion of Gotham Metropolis as soon as his film debuts. Nevertheless, I can perceive how some followers is perhaps fascinated with his solo movie and scratching their heads. How, in any case, is that this DC character particular sufficient to shoulder his personal film, particularly after following the booted footsteps of iconic heroes like Superman and Supergirl?
That is what I am right here to reply, loyal Popverse reader. Forward of the movie of the identical title, Popverse tasked me with assembling a really thorough historical past of the character and an informational nicely of what led to his starring in a film. Whether or not you are an off-the-cuff DC Comics reader, a film buff, or only a fan of the horror style (like yours actually), this Clayface explainer is for you.
Who’s Clayface in DC Comics?
For those who ask the typical comics fan this query, they’re going to seemingly inform you a similar factor. Clayface, they’re going to say, is a monstrous, shape-shifting member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery, whose massive physique resembles the consistency and shade of, nicely, clay. Ask that very same informal fan to provide you Clayface’s secret identification, although, and you will get quite a lot of totally different solutions, with some of us labelling him as Basil Karlo, and others Matt Hagen. And the factor is – they’d each be proper.
Ever since debuting in a 1940 comedian, Clayface’s title has been taken on by a bunch of DC Comics characters, various in their metahuman talents, morality, and relationship with the Darkish Knight. Although I am the primary to confess I haven’t got each piece of the characters’ lore memorized, I’ve discovered that at the least six totally different DC villains have all passed by the identical title at one time, and have listed these villains together with their first comedian e book appearances beneath.
- Basil Karlo – Detective Comics #40; June 1940
- Matt Hagen – Detective Comics #298; December 1961
- Preston Payne – Detective Comics #477; June 1978
- Sondra Fuller – Outsiders #21; July 1987 (often known as Girl Clay)
- Cassius Payne – Batman: Shadow of the Bat #26; April 1994
- Peter Malley – Batman #550; January 1998 (often known as Claything)
Additionally price noting right here: followers of the extremely underrated The Batman cartoon may keep in mind a distinct Clayface – an ex-GCPD officer named Ethan Bennett. As soon as a buddy of Bruce Wayne, Bennett was remodeled right into a shape-shifting monster after unwilling publicity to a substance referred to as “Joker Putty,” utilized by… er, The Joker. It rewrote Bennett’s biology, driving him mad and making him an enemy of The Batman.
Ah, what an awesome present The Batman was. Anyway, since we’re with reference to Clayface transformations, now may simply be a good time to ask a query that a lot of the web has about our favourite formless freak…
How did Clayface develop into Clayface?
As you may’ve guessed from the above, that reply is dependent upon which Clayface you imply. Basil Karlo, for instance, began out his Golden Age comics profession simply by donning a malleable clay masks and committing crimes. Then, in the Nineteen Sixties, Matt Hagen was uncovered to some radioactive goop and have become the primary Clayface whose physique acted just like the clay itself. Ever since Hagen, then, Clayfaces have had an analogous origin story – contact some scifi (or magic) chemical, get became a sludge particular person. However what’s fascinating is that, similar to the character’s DNA, the origin of the totally different Clayfaces finally clumped right into a pliable mildew.
All that clumping got here to a head on TV, in the collection that launched generations of non-comic readers to the deep lore of Gotham Metropolis – Batman: The Animated Series. Among the many cavalcade of sensible episodes and important transmedia modifications the present introduced us was Feat of Clay, the two-episode 1992 storyline that launched us to a sort of composite character. This Matt Hagen was, like Basil Karlo, a struggling actor, however like his comedian e book namesake and the others that adopted, cursed by a devious mixture of untested science and felony exercise.
Together with stellar critiques and at the least one absolutely pristine action figure, Feat of Clay components 1 & 2 impressed a big shift in the cultural historical past of Clayface. On this story, Clayface wasn’t only a grasping hoodlum – he was a deeply sympathetic man, a determined has been who turns to the mob for an answer to the dream slipping between his fingers, solely to search out treachery when the chemical they supply him turns him right into a monster. To this present day, these episodes not solely stand out as among the finest superhero storytelling on TV, however in addition they deeply have an effect on each creator who’s tackled the DC villain since.
Actually, they’re the explanation we’re getting a Clayface film in the primary place.
What’s the Clayface 2026 film about?
As we’ll get into later, the Clayface film was impressed predominantly by Feat of Clay (and a sure horror icon’s love of that story, however I am getting forward of myself…), in order you may think, the plot synopsis of 1 reads largely like the opposite’s. On this story, Matt Hagen is an actor who has been disfigured by somebody in Gotham’s felony underworld, and in desperation, turns to a scientist with a chemical answer for his issues.
The place the 2 differ, nevertheless, is in the sort of monstrosity this answer produces. Since day certainly one of its growth, Clayface has been described as a physique horror akin to The Substance – a beauty-makeover-gone-wrong that guarantees an entire lot of very uncomfortable onscreen gore. Yeah, Clayface has already earned an official R-rating, and in this humble author’s opinion, which means there’s going to be much more broken-up our bodies than simply Matt Hagen’s in this image – and in contrast to his, these our bodies most likely cannot slough again collectively.
Now, whereas we’re with reference to our liquidy lead, let’s get into some behind-the-scenes information, beginning with…
Who performs Clayface in Clayface?
That will be Tom Rhys Harries, whose title has appeared in the credit of Physician Who, Netflix’s The Gents, and numerous variety of stageplay packages. You’ll be able to see the primary picture of Harries as Matt Hagen above, and I’ve to level out, he appears to be like an entire lot like one other face-morphing comedian book-adjacent antihero – Sam Raimi’s Darkman. You already know, I am unable to assist however surprise if the upcoming Darkman reboot has one thing to do with this picture…
Sorry, sorry – that is a can of worms I should not open proper now. For our functions, let’s transfer on to the following hottest query the web has about Harries’s upcoming gig…
Is Clayface in James Gunn’s DCU?
It positive is! Actually, not solely is Clayface the film going to make for the third cinematic DCU outing when it hits theaters in October 2026, however Clayface the character has already made his official DCU debut! That was in Creature Commandos, which you may simply keep in mind from Popverse’s protection of the season 1 finale episode. And for those who do not keep in mind, nicely, the hyperlink is correct there.
Who’s making the Clayface 2026 film?
However I get it – you need to discuss Clayface’s large display screen look. And actually, identical right here, particularly contemplating the expertise concerned in bringing it to theaters. Together with Harries in the titular position, the Clayface credit embrace horror staple James Watkins in the director’s chair (who was chargeable for the Shut Up and Dance episode of Black Mirror), Drive author Hossein Amini penning the script, and actors Naomi Ackie and Max Minghella in the roles of a Gotham scientist and police detective, respectively.
‘Maintain on, Grant,’ you say, ‘Is not there a reputation you are forgetting? In spite of everything, did not James Gunn agree so as to add Clayface to the DCU’s schedule as a result of the script got here from a legend of modern-day horror filmmaking?’ Effectively, elucidative reader, the reply to that’s sure, but it surely’s additionally a solution that may’t cease there. Let me clarify the reality behind the query…
Is Clayface written by Mike Flanagan?
OK, here is the brief model of this reply: Mike Flanagan wrote the script for the Clayface film that James Gunn and Peter Safran added to the DCU cinematic schedule. Throughout pre-production, nevertheless, that script was rewritten.
Now here is the longer model: In 2021, The Haunting of Hill Home creator Flanagan revealed that he had written a script concerning the Batman villain Clayface, primarily based largely on the Batman: The Animated Sequence origin of the character. For years, the script was in flux (as was the cinematic DC Comics universe, keep in mind), and it wasn’t till 2024 that the newly-formed DC Studios, led by Gunn and Safran, formally greenlit Flanagan’s script as an official a part of their DCU plans.
Nevertheless, in Might of 2025, DC Studios revealed that Clayface could be following a new script from author Amini. Then in June of that yr, Flanagan himself touched on the swap, saying Clayface was “not my film,” whereas nonetheless hoping that “it stays true to the spirit of what I wished it to be.” And simply to get forward of all you sensationalists on the market – Flanagan by no means reported leaving the challenge as a consequence of any destructive expertise with James Gunn or DC. With each Carrie and The Darkish Tower variations on his plate, plus a brand new Exorcist installment, Flanagan is only a busy dude.
(Fast private apart right here – I adore Clayface, but when giving this up signifies that Mike Flanagan will get to adapt The Dark Tower series the best way it needs to be tailored, I would say this was a worthy sacrifice to make.)
With that clarification out of the best way, there are actually only some questions left relating to Clayface’s starring cinematic debut, and it should not shock you that the primary one goes like this:
What’s Clayface’s launch date?
James Watkins’s DCU-canon horror film Clayface, starring Tom Rhys Harries because the titular Matt Hagen, involves theaters, appropriately, simply in time for Halloween – October 23, 2026. A few of you could do not forget that the unique launch date for the film was September 11 of this yr, however that was up to date by Warner Bros this previous February. And actually, for a monster film, that makes much more sense to me.
Which brings us to our ultimate query – what sort of a monster is Clayface anyway? Is he the pitiable Frankenstein kind or of the unrepentant Dracula mildew (heh, mildew)? In different phrases…
Is Clayface a hero or a villain?
Oof, boy. Let me begin this reply by saying A.) I’m no ethical authority, and B.) the one cause I am even together with the query on right here is that the web appears to essentially need to realize it (gotta get that web optimization, of us). That is an actual bummer, frankly, as a result of the reply in my opinion is sure to be an anticlimactic one. Until the material of DC Leisure modifications an awesome deal in the approaching years, Clayface will all the time be some sort of villain.
Now, tack on a large, shape-shifting BUT the tip of that reply, as a result of what’s not anticlimactic is that this: all through his 80+ years of comedian e book historical past, Clayface has been an awesome instance of how advanced a comic book e book villain might be! The Forties Basil Karlo is as blackhearted a thug as you may get, however the Matt Hagen of Batman: The Animated Sequence was a monster created by societal pressures. The DCU, in the meantime, appears to be strolling a line between the 2, with a pitiable Hagen showing in the solo movie and his fairly heartless (presumably) future self killing with no thought in Creature Commandos.
And simply because his villain streak continues in the comics does not imply he hasn’t had some glowing moments of heroics as nicely – simply learn James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics run and you will see what we imply. Within the medium that birthed him, Clayface’s arc could possibly be in comparison with that of Poison Ivy or Magneto – sure, they’ve finished despicable issues, however for causes which might be deeply comprehensible. His story tells us that typically what we name “villains” are simply odd folks folks put beneath extraordinary strain, and beneath totally different circumstances, they may have made higher choices. Just like the actor that he is develop into, Clayface is proof that persons are moldable.
Some greater than others.