ITV/DC ComicsClayface is officially in the works, and we have a release date. Writer Mike Flanagan has also revealed why he’s no longer directing the upcoming DCU movie.
Although we’re gearing up for Supergirl and The Batman 2, the powers that be are also focused on getting another Gotham villain flick off the ground. That honor goes to the comic book baddie known as Clayface.
With a horror master penning the first script and the full force of DC’s creative team behind the project, there’s lots of reasons to get exited about this supervillain tale.
Read on to find out everything there is to know about the Clayface movie, from the release date to potential storylines.
Clayface release date
Clayface will be released in theaters on September 11, 2026.
The release date was announced on December 13, 2024, making it one of three upcoming DC movies slated to arrive that year, alongside Supergirl and Lanterns.
Clayface started filming in August 2025 and officially wrapped up on November 1, meaning it’s well on track to drop on its announced release date.
Who’s making Clayface?
James Watkins will be directing Clayface from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini.
After much speculation, it was announced that Watkins (who directed the 2024 horror movie Speak No Evil), would be stepping up to oversee the new movie, followed by the news that the script would undergo some edits.
In May 2025, The Wrap reported that Drive scribe Hossein Amini had been tapped to carry out the rewrites.
DC ComicsJames Gunn and Peter Safran will produce, as well as Lynn Harris and The Batman’s Matt Reeves.
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What happened to Mike Flanagan?
Since Mike Flanagan’s been on board from the beginning, his departure has caused some confusion. However, there’s a simple explanation: he’s simply too busy with other projects – including his upcoming Carrie TV show.
The Clayface movie has been in development for a few years, but Flanagan wrote a now-deleted post on X talking about the possibility of making one all the way back in 2021. He even cited that he would approach the project as a “horror/thriller/tragedy.”
Given his background in gut-wrenching horror shows and movies (The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, and Midnight Mass, to name a few), Flanagan has all the right expertise.
Warner Bros.When news broke that he was no longer attached to the project, Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider suggested that this is “par for the course” when it comes to blockbuster films, and that Flanagan is too busy with his Carrie TV show to carry them out.
In May 2025, Flanagan confirmed this in a conversation with ComicBook, saying that his original script was inspired by Batman: The Animated Series.
“‘Feat of Clay,’ Ron Perlman, to me, that’s it. That two-parter knocked me out. The short answer is that is absolutely what inspired my script. That is the world I wanted to live in,” he told the outlet.
“Batman: The Animated Series when I was growing up was my Batman. As much as [Michael] Keaton was my Batman, The Animated Series really was my Batman.”
The horror mastermind went on to say: “I don’t know what they’re doing with Clayface. I’m not directing it, and that filmmaker will need to make it their own.
“I know that they’re doing work on the script. I’m off doing other things now, I really hope it remains true to the spirit of what I wanted it to be. But it’s not my movie, so I’ll be in the audience with you, anxious to see how it comes out.”
Flanagan shared similar sentiments with ScreenRant in November 2025, saying turning down Clayface is “the only time this has ever happened to me where I was like, ‘I have to go make Carrie. There’s nothing I can do.’
“They wanted the movie to happen, so I had to kind of do the thing that I’ve never had to do before, it’s like, ‘Well, here you go. Have fun making the movie and tell me how it goes.'”
DCU Clayface cast
In June 2025, it was confirmed that Tom Rhys Harries would be taking on the lead role of Matt Hagen, aka Clayface.
Other cast members who’ve since been announced include Naomi Ackie as Dr. Caitlin Bates, a “fringe” scientist compared to Elizabeth Holmes and Hagen’s love interest, and Max Minghella as a Gotham City police detective who is dating Bates.
Eddie Marsan has also joined the lineup, although who he’s playing is being kept under wraps for now.
Will Clayface be in The Batman 2?
Warner Bros.Even though The Batman 2 script has been finished, there’s still plenty of mystery about who the villains will be. However, Gunn has since confirmed that Clayface isn’t one of them.
Reeves’ involvement with the Clayface movie kicked off speculation about whether Clayface would make an appearance in the superhero sequel alongside The Scarecrow.
Gunn, however, shut down these rumors in a reply to a question on Threads, writing, “Firstly, no. Secondly, couldn’t be the case as there hasn’t yet been a first draft of a script.”
There’s a whole slate of untapped villains in Reeves’ version of Gotham, and Clayface is just one of the many possibilities. But given how the Penguin and Joker are already established in that world, it’s more than likely to focus on them.
Plot speculation
There’s been no official synopsis or plot details released for Clayface, but we now know it will center on Matt Hagen, a rising actor whose life unravels after he experiments with a mysterious, transformative substance that turns him into the shape-shifting monster.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, his “face is disfigured by a gangster. As a last resort, the actor turns to a fringe Elizabeth Holmes-style scientist for help.” Initially, the experiment is successful, but it soon takes a dark turn.
Although the movie uses the Matt Hagen iteration, this setup suggests Flanagan is blending Hagen’s tragic transformation arc with elements of the original Clayface origin.
DC ComicsClayface has had eight incarnations since his 1940 debut. The very first was Basil Karlo, a horror movie actor who snapped when a studio rebooted one of his films without him.
Since Batman will be busy in his sequel battling the as-of-yet unspecified villain, it seems as though Clayface’s movie could be a Joker-style origin story.
Each version of the character has been equally “tragic” in their own right, with every one of them fitting Flanagan’s bill.
For more, find out how to watch all the Batman movies. You can also take a look at the other best supervillains of all time, and see what’s happening with Man of Tomorrow.