James Gunn on Why Clayface Movie Fits DCU, Not Reeves' Batman Saga

DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have recently shed light on the much-anticipated Clayface movie, confirming its place within the DCU canon and its R rating. Clayface, a notorious villain from Gotham City known for his ability to morph his clay-like body into various forms, has been a staple adversary for Batman since his debut in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940.

DC Studios officially announced that the Clayface film will hit theaters on September 11, 2026. The project was greenlit following 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 are on board as producers.

Confirmed DCU Projects

11 ImagesDuring a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn and Safran elaborated on why Clayface was chosen for the DCU rather than Matt Reeves' more grounded The Batman Epic Crime Saga. "Clayface is totally DCU," Gunn stated. 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. He further explained that Clayface wouldn't fit well within the more realistic 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 final negotiations with James Watkins, known for his work on Speak No Evil, to direct the film. Filming is slated 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.

He added, "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 presentation, Safran described Clayface as "experimental," not fitting the mold of a traditional superhero blockbuster, and more of 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 the film's R rating, stating, "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."