New Details Emerge About Upcoming ‘Clayface’ Horror Movie

A new Clayface movie is officially on the way, and fresh reports are giving fans a clearer picture of what to expect. According to Nexus Point News, the film will tell a dark and disturbing story about a struggling Hollywood actor who ends up turning into a monster made of clay.

DC Studios has described the film as an R-rated body horror that will show the tragic origins of one of Batman’s classic villains.

The movie was originally thought up by horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, known for Doctor Sleep and The Haunting of Hill House. Flanagan first became interested in Clayface back in 2021 and kept pitching his idea to DC. In March 2023, Flanagan and his producing partner Trevor Macy met with DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran to talk about the project.

Reports say that from the start, the idea was for Clayface to be more than just a typical villain. Safran even said the film would have a tone similar to the horror classic The Fly, calling it “a true body horror story.”

In December 2024, DC Studios gave the film the green light. It was confirmed that Flanagan would write the script, but he couldn’t direct due to being busy with his upcoming Exorcist film and a Carrie miniseries. Matt Reeves, director of The Batman, is producing the film along with Lynn Harris from his company 6th & Idaho Productions. James Watkins, known for Speak No Evil, was brought on to direct the film in early 2025. Around that time, Hossein Amini was also hired to work on a new draft of the script.

Casting for the film took a while. By mid-2025, actors like Tom Blyth, George Mackay, Jack O’Connell, and Leo Woodall had all tried out for the lead role of Matt Hagen. But the part eventually went to Tom Rhys Harries, known for shows like White Lines and Suspicion. Harries was officially cast as Clayface in June 2025.

According to Nexus Point News, the film’s version of Clayface will focus on Matt Hagen, a young actor originally from Gotham City. After a brutal attack leaves him disfigured, he heads to Hollywood hoping for a fresh start.

But his injuries destroy his acting career, leading to a tragic transformation into a shape-shifting monster. Fans of the comics will recognize parts of this backstory, as the film combines Hagen’s comic history with elements of another Clayface character, Basil Karlo. Flanagan has said that the movie is inspired by Batman: The Animated Series, especially the two-part episode “Feat of Clay.”

In the comics, Matt Hagen first appeared in Detective Comics #298 in 1961, created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff. Originally, Hagen was a treasure hunter who found strange protoplasm that turned him into Clayface. Basil Karlo, meanwhile, was introduced earlier in Detective Comics #40 in 1940. He was a failed actor who became a killer after taking on the identity of a horror character he once played.

In the new movie, Hagen’s closest connection is Dr. Caitlin Bates, a character created for the film. Bates is the head of a biotech company trying to make new medical technology. She sees Hagen’s condition as a chance to push her research forward. Over time, she falls in love with him, but her fiancé John, a Gotham detective, grows suspicious of her relationship with the disfigured actor.

The movie’s villain will be a crime boss, another original character created just for this film. Right now, there are no plans to include famous DC characters like Batman. The story will focus mainly on Hagen and his personal journey.

Alan Tudyk, who voices Clayface in the animated Harley Quinn show and Creature Commandos, will not be involved in the new film.

Filming is set to begin in August 2025 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in England. Clayface is scheduled to release on September 11, 2026, as part of DC Studios’ Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

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