DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have recently shared exciting details about the upcoming movie "Clayface," confirming its status within the DCU and its R rating. Clayface, known for his ability to transform his clay-like body into any form or person, is one of Batman's earliest adversaries. The character first appeared as Basil Karlo in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940.
DC Studios announced last month that "Clayface" is slated for release on September 11, 2026. The decision to greenlight this project was influenced by the success of HBO's "The Penguin" series. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan is set to pen the screenplay, while Lynn Harris and "The Batman" director Matt Reeves will co-produce.
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During a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn and Safran elaborated on why "Clayface" fits within the DCU and not Matt Reeves' "The Batman Epic Crime Saga." "Clayface is totally DCU," Gunn affirmed. Safran added, "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," Gunn emphasized. "It's an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world." He also noted that Clayface wouldn't have been suitable for Reeves' more grounded narrative. "It was very outside of the grounded non-super metahuman characters in Matt's world," Gunn explained.
Safran revealed that DC Studios is in negotiations with James Watkins, the director of "Speak No Evil," to helm "Clayface." Filming is scheduled to begin this summer. "This summer, cameras are going to roll on Clayface, an incredible body horror film that reveals a compelling origin of a classic Batman villain, and this is another title that we added to the slate on the strength of an exceptional screenplay by Mike Flanagan," Safran stated.
"I think some of you are probably aware that we're in negotiations with James Watkins now to direct, and we'll start casting this as soon as we have the director deal done and we'll shoot this summer. It's slated for a fall 2026 release. Clayface might not be as widely known as The Penguin or The Joker, but we really feel that his story is equally resonant, compelling, and in many ways, more terrifying than one of those," Safran added.
Throughout the presentation, Safran described "Clayface" as "experimental," deviating from the traditional superhero genre and more akin to an "indie style chiller." Gunn echoed this sentiment, calling it "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."
Gunn also confirmed that "Clayface" will be rated R. "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," Gunn concluded.
