DC Studios Goes Dark: The First Teaser for “Clayface” Molds a Batman Villain Into Full-Blown Horror

DC Studios is expanding its release roster in a horrifying new direction.

The home of Superman, Batman, and more now includes a place for director James Watkins’ (Speak No Evil) Clayface, DC Studios’ first-ever horror film, which is centered on the gruesome fate of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), a rising Hollywood star whose twisted turn of fate reshapes him into a vengeance-seeking monster and iconic Batman villain.

The first teaser is a minute’s worth of beguiling, wordless setup, as we briefly see Hagen’s handsome Hollywood up-and-comer disfigured by a gangster and, at the teaser’s close, his new, horrifying, highly malleable face. After being disfigured by the gangster, Hagen turns to scientist Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who transforms his body into clay.

Watkins’ body-horror film is based on a script by Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) and Hossein Amini (Drive), and has been billed by DC Studios co-chief James Gunn as the film he didn’t expect to make, telling reporters back in February of 2025 that DC Studios had no designs on a Clayface movie until Mike Flanagan “turned in a script and it’s one of the best scripts that we’ve read.”

Clayface is expected to be rated R, giving viewers a chance to see how an iconic Batman villain was molded. The film also offers audiences a chance to get to know villains who haven’t appeared on the big screen, unlike mainstays the Joker and the Penguin. Gunn and DC Studios’ other co-chief, Peter Safran, said that Clayface will exist within the DCU, unlike, say, Matt Reeves The Batman or, previously, Todd Phillips The Joker films, which exist outside of it.

“It was important that Clayface be part of the DCU,” Safran said. “It’s an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world. 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. Gunn added that the film will feel “totally real” and will be “true and psychological and body horror and gross.”

Joining Harries and Ackie in the cast are Eddie Marsan, Max Minghella, David Dencik, Francesca Corney, Ruby Sear, Wil Coban, Joshua James, and Jake Curran.

Watkins’ team behind the camera includes cinematographer Rob Hardy, production designer James Price, editor Jon Harris, visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, costume designer Keith Madden, and casting director Lucy Bevan.

Check out the teaser before. Clayface will arrive in theaters on October 23.

Featured image: Caption: TOM RHYS HARRIES as Matt Hagen in DC Studios’ “Clayface,” a Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures