DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have exciting news for fans about the upcoming movie Clayface, confirming its status as part of the DCU canon and its R rating.
Clayface follows the story of Basil Karlo, a former criminal from Gotham City with the unique ability to transform his clay-like body into any form or person. As one of Batman's earliest adversaries, Karlo first appeared in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940. The film's release is scheduled for September 11, 2026, a decision influenced by the success of HBO's The Penguin series. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan penned the screenplay, and Lynn Harris will produce alongside The Batman director Matt Reeves.
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During a recent DC Studios presentation covered by IGN, Gunn and Safran explained why Clayface fits into the DCU rather than 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. It's an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world.”
Gunn emphasized that Clayface wouldn't fit well within the more grounded setting of Reeves' saga, stating, “It was very outside of the grounded non-super metahuman characters in Matt's world.”
Safran revealed that DC Studios is currently in talks with Speak No Evil director James Watkins to helm Clayface, with filming set 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 noted.
“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.”
Throughout the DC Studios presentation, Safran described Clayface as “experimental,” noting it diverges from traditional superhero films by adopting an “indie style chiller” approach. Gunn described it 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.”
Gunn confirmed the film's R rating, saying, “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.”
