Clayface is DC Studios’ Batman spinoff film, and the franchise’s darkest, most horror-themed project ever. It’s been made clear from the start that this villain origin film won’t have Batman swinging in for the save, nor is it directly connected to any other DCU film or TV series. That’s been a tricky thing for fans to reconcile, as Gotham City has been referenced in nearly every DCU project, and fans have already seen Clayface seemingly meet his end in the Creature Commandos animated series. It’s also been somewhat confusing for fans to see The Batman director Matt Reeves popping up along the Clayface promotional tour – or hearing things like star Tom Rhys Harries saying he wants a team-up with Colin Farrell’s Penguin.
So how and where does this Clayface movie fit into the larger DCU franchise? The man at the top, James Gunn, may have just ended all speculation and rumor in his answer about what comes next.
While being interviewed by Cinemex, James Gunn stated that “This [movie] isn’t the last we’ll see of Clayface. And I can’t wait for you guys to see what we do with him.” That answer seems to indicate two things:
The confusion with Reeves’ The Batman likely comes from the fact that Matt Reeves and Clayface writer Mike Flanagan were developing this movie before DC Studios was launched. As he told Batman News, “After THE BATMAN, I was very excited about this idea: THE BATMAN was not a Batman origin story, but what it did—because it was his first appearance in the city—it was an entree into origin stories for the Rogues’ Gallery… And one of the things I got very excited about was the idea of looking for ways to do really cool, smaller horror films. And [Screenwriter] Mike Flanagan came to me and said he had been a huge fan of Clayface…and had a passion about doing a horror story with Clayface at the core. So, we started developing it.” Obviously, the project changed when DC Studios was launched, but Matt Reeves is still attached as a producer, alongside James Gunn, Peter Safran, and Lynn Harris.
But is Clayface truly dead after the events of Creature Commandos Season 1? In that series, he disguised himself as a key ally and ambushed Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) and Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour). Clayface ultimately got shocked with enough voltage to light up a city block and looked pretty dead. See for yourself, below:
DC Comics has made it clear that Clayface can not only survive that much voltage, but fake his death by shaping some of a mass of his clay into a “corpse” while a smaller bit escapes and rebuilds later. The more interesting theory is that Clayface will be recruited into “Task Force M” in Creature Commandos Season 2, which would let Gunn and Co. play with the character and his powers a lot more than live-action allows.
It would also further establish Matt Hagen/Clayface as a character before the DCU Batman reboot, The Brave and the Bold, arrives. As Creature Commandos showed us, another great thing about Clayface is that he can literally pop up anywhere for a fun/frightening cameo while imitating another character. Sky is the limit.
But first, audiences need to respond to Clayface when the movie opens in theaters. Are you excited to see it? Let us know in the comments!
