DC Studios has released a new trailer for Clayface, and while it looks super cool, I wouldn’t recommend watching it while eating.
The trailer gives us our best look yet at Clayface, the next movie in James Gunn’s ongoing DC Universe. We get a good idea of the origin story for Matt Hagen / Clayface, who undergoes experimental treatment after he is left disfigured.
There are a number of standout moments in the trailer, but the one that’s stuck with me is when Hagen is forced to the restroom on a plane because his eyelids are melting together. He is so desperate to see that he looks like he’s about to cut his own eyelid skin. Ouch.
But there are plenty more disgusting moments of body horror, which is exactly how it should be for a movie of this kind. Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, Clayface is deliberately positioned as a counterpoint to the bright and breezy Superman and Supergirl films. It presents a nightmarish version of Peter Parker discovering his Spider-Man powers, except instead of sticking to walls and shooting out webs, Matt Hagen finds himself in the unfortunate position of coming to terms with his face falling off.
I will admit to the potential of some audience confusion with the release of Clayface, who is very much a Gotham-based Batman villain. The movie comes out before the recently delayed The Batman 2, which is not a part of Gunn’s DCU, rather Matt Reeves’ “Batman Epic Crime Saga.” So, don’t expect Robert Pattinson to pop out from the shadows in an end credit scene to temper Clayface’s quest for revenge.
In fact, don’t expect Batman to show up at all — Gunn has yet to even announce who’s playing his Batman for the upcoming The Brave and the Bold movie, which will presumably take place in the Gotham we see in Clayface. Gunn has insisted he won’t start talking about it in any meaningful sense until The Batman 2 is out the door, and right now, that’s February 18, 2028.
So, for now, Clayface is something of an oddity: a cool looking DCU standalone that may or may not have connections to the events we’ve already seen in Superman and Supergirl, and will see in next year’s Man of Tomorrow, and the DCU’s future Batman. That’s fine by me, because if this trailer is anything to go by, Clayface has more than enough skin in the game.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
