DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have officially confirmed that the upcoming movie, "Clayface," will be part of the DCU canon and carry an R rating. This thrilling announcement has fans buzzing about the potential of this classic Batman villain's story being brought to the big screen in a way that promises to be both unique and terrifying.
Clayface, known for his origins as a criminal in Gotham City with the remarkable ability to transform his clay-like body into anyone or anything, has been a formidable adversary to Batman since his debut in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940. The character's first iteration, Basil Karlo, will be the focus of this film, exploring his origin story in depth.
DC Studios announced last month that "Clayface" is slated for release on September 11, 2026. The decision to greenlight this project came on the heels of the successful HBO series, "The Penguin." The film will be penned by horror visionary Mike Flanagan, with Lynn Harris and "The Batman" director Matt Reeves set to produce.
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During a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn and Safran emphasized the importance of including Clayface within the DCU, distinguishing it from Matt Reeves’ more grounded "The Batman Epic Crime Saga." Gunn stated, "Clayface is totally DCU. It was very outside of the grounded non-super metahuman characters in Matt's world."
Safran further clarified the distinction, saying, "The only thing that's in Matt's world, his Crime Saga that he's telling, is the Batman Trilogy, the Penguin series, that's in that lane. So still under DC Studios, still under us. We have an incredible relationship with Matt, but those are the only things. It was important that Clayface be part of the DCU. It's an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world."
DC Studios is currently in negotiations with James Watkins, the director of "Speak No Evil," to helm "Clayface." With filming set to begin this summer, Safran described the movie as "an incredible body horror film that reveals a compelling origin of a classic Batman villain." He praised the screenplay by Mike Flanagan, noting its addition to the slate was based on its exceptional quality.
Safran also highlighted the film's unique nature, calling it "experimental" and not a "traditional superhero tentpole movie," but rather an "indie style chiller." Gunn echoed this sentiment, describing "Clayface" as "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."
Confirming the film's R rating, Gunn expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "I think that one of the things Peter and I talked about when we first got the script is if we were producing movies five years ago 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."
