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It sure is a great time to be a Batman villain. Icons like Poison Ivy are taking over more comics by the day, while The Penguin has been elevated to official HBO mobster status. Even the Joker is... uh, maybe that's a bad example, but the point is that some of The Dark Knight's most famous enemies are ironically getting their time to shine. There's one Gotham goon, though, that is getting a full-on solo movie later this year, despite the fact that, before said movie, some Batfans might not have even heard of him.

I'm talking, of course, about Clayface, the titular star of the DC Cinematic Universe's third official film, and the first of its kind to fall into the horror genre. At 86 years old, Clayface is a rich and fascinating DC villain, and the non-comics reading world is in for a whole new perception of Gotham City once his movie debuts. However, I can understand how some fans might be thinking about his solo film and scratching their heads. How, after all, is this DC character special enough to shoulder his own movie, especially after following the booted footsteps of iconic heroes like Superman and Supergirl?

That's what I'm here to answer, loyal Popverse reader. Ahead of the film of the same name, Popverse tasked me with assembling a very thorough history of the character and an informational well of what led to his starring in a movie. Whether you're a casual DC Comics reader, a movie buff, or just a fan of the horror genre (like yours truly), this Clayface explainer is for you.

Who is Clayface in DC Comics?

If you ask the average comics fan this question, they'll likely tell you the same thing. Clayface, they'll say, is a monstrous, shape-shifting member of Batman's Rogues Gallery, whose large body resembles the consistency and color of, well, clay. Ask that same casual fan to give you Clayface's secret identity, though, and you'll get a variety of different answers, with some folks labelling him as Basil Karlo, and others Matt Hagen. And the thing is - they'd both be right.

Ever since debuting in a 1940 comic, Clayface's name has been taken on by a host of DC Comics characters, varying in their metahuman abilities, morality, and relationship with the Dark Knight. Though I'm the first to admit I don't have every piece of the characters' lore memorized, I've found that at least six different DC villains have all gone by the same name at one time, and have listed those villains along with their first comic book appearances below.

• Basil Karlo - Detective Comics #40; June 1940
• Matt Hagen - Detective Comics #298; December 1961
• Preston Payne - Detective Comics #477; June 1978
• Sondra Fuller - Outsiders #21; July 1987 (also known as Lady Clay)
• Cassius Payne - Batman: Shadow of the Bat #26; April 1994
• Peter Malley - Batman #550; January 1998 (also known as Claything)

Also worth noting here: fans of the highly underrated The Batman cartoon might remember a different Clayface - an ex-GCPD officer named Ethan Bennett. Once a friend of Bruce Wayne, Bennett was transformed into a shape-shifting monster after unwilling exposure to a substance called "Joker Putty," used by... er, The Joker. It rewrote Bennett's biology, driving him mad and making him an enemy of The Batman.

Ah, what a great show The Batman was. Anyway, since we're on the subject of Clayface transformations, now might just be a great time to ask a question that much of the internet has about our favorite formless freak...

How did Clayface become Clayface?

As you might've guessed from the above, that answer depends on which Clayface you mean. Basil Karlo, for example, started out his Golden Age comics career just by donning a malleable clay mask and committing crimes. Then, in the 1960s, Matt Hagen was exposed to some radioactive goop and became the first Clayface whose body acted like the clay itself. Ever since Hagen, then, Clayfaces have had a similar origin story - touch some scifi (or magic) chemical, get turned into a sludge person. But what's fascinating is that, just like the character's DNA, the origin of the different Clayfaces eventually clumped into a pliable mold.

All that clumping came to a head on TV, in the series that introduced generations of non-comic readers to the deep lore of Gotham City - Batman: The Animated Series. Among the cavalcade of brilliant episodes and significant transmedia changes the show brought us was Feat of Clay, the two-episode 1992 storyline that introduced us to a kind of composite character. This Matt Hagen was, like Basil Karlo, a struggling actor, but like his comic book namesake and the others that followed, cursed by a devious combination of untested science and criminal activity.

Along with stellar reviews and at least one absolutely pristine action figure, Feat of Clay parts 1 & 2 inspired a significant shift in the cultural history of Clayface. In this story, Clayface wasn't just a greedy hoodlum - he was a deeply sympathetic man, a desperate has been who turns to the mob for a solution to the dream slipping between his fingers, only to find treachery when the chemical they provide him turns him into a monster. To this day, these episodes not only stand out as some of the best superhero storytelling on TV, but they also deeply affect every creator who's tackled the DC villain since.

In fact, they're the reason we're getting a Clayface movie in the first place.

What is the Clayface 2026 movie about?

As we'll get into later, the Clayface movie was inspired predominantly by Feat of Clay (and a certain horror icon's love of that story, but I'm getting ahead of myself...), so as you might imagine, the plot synopsis of one reads largely like the other's. In this story, Matt Hagen is an actor who has been disfigured by someone in Gotham's criminal underworld, and in desperation, turns to a scientist with a chemical solution for his problems.

Where the two differ, however, is in the kind of monstrosity this solution produces. Since day one of its development, Clayface has been described as a body horror akin to The Substance - a beauty-makeover-gone-wrong that promises a whole lot of very uncomfortable onscreen gore. Yeah, Clayface has already earned an official R-rating, and in this humble writer's opinion, that means there's going to be a lot more broken-up bodies than just Matt Hagen's in this picture - and unlike his, those bodies probably can't slough back together.

Now, while we're on the subject of our liquidy lead, let's get into some behind-the-scenes info, starting with...

Who plays Clayface in Clayface?

That would be Tom Rhys Harries, whose name has appeared in the credits of Doctor Who, Netflix's The Gentlemen, and countless number of stageplay programs. You can see the first image of Harries as Matt Hagen above, and I have to point out, he looks a whole lot like another face-morphing comic book-adjacent antihero - Sam Raimi's Darkman. You know, I can't help but wonder if the upcoming Darkman reboot has something to do with this image...

Sorry, sorry - that's a can of worms I shouldn't open right now. For our purposes, let's move on to the next most popular question the internet has about Harries's upcoming gig...

Is Clayface in James Gunn's DCU?

It sure is! In fact, not only is Clayface the movie going to make for the third cinematic DCU outing when it hits theaters in October 2026, but Clayface the character has already made his official DCU debut! That was in Creature Commandos, which you might just remember from Popverse's coverage of the season 1 finale episode. And if you don't remember, well, the link is right there.

Who is making the Clayface 2026 movie?

But I get it - you want to talk about Clayface's big screen appearance. And honestly, same here, especially considering the talent involved in bringing it to theaters. Along with Harries in the titular role, the Clayface credits include horror staple James Watkins in the director's chair (who was responsible for the Shut Up and Dance episode of Black Mirror), Drive writer Hossein Amini penning the script, and actors Naomi Ackie and Max Minghella in the roles of a Gotham scientist and police detective, respectively.

'Hold on, Grant,' you say, 'Isn't there a name you're forgetting? After all, didn't James Gunn agree to add Clayface to the DCU's schedule because the script came from a legend of modern-day horror filmmaking?' Well, elucidative reader, the answer to that is yes, but it's also an answer that can't stop there. Let me explain the truth behind the question...

Is Clayface written by Mike Flanagan?

OK, here's the short version of this answer: Mike Flanagan wrote the script for the Clayface movie that James Gunn and Peter Safran added to the DCU cinematic schedule. During pre-production, however, that script was rewritten.

Now here's the longer version: In 2021, The Haunting of Hill House creator Flanagan revealed that he had written a script about the Batman villain Clayface, based largely on the Batman: The Animated Series origin of the character. For years, the script was in flux (as was the cinematic DC Comics universe, remember), and it wasn't until 2024 that the newly-formed DC Studios, led by Gunn and Safran, officially greenlit Flanagan's script as an official part of their DCU plans.

However, in May of 2025, DC Studios revealed that Clayface would be following a new script from writer Amini. Then in June of that year, Flanagan himself touched on the switch, saying Clayface was "not my movie," while still hoping that "it remains true to the spirit of what I wanted it to be." And just to get ahead of all you sensationalists out there - Flanagan never reported leaving the project due to any negative experience with James Gunn or DC. With both Carrie and The Dark Tower adaptations on his plate, plus a new Exorcist installment, Flanagan is just a busy dude.

(Quick personal aside here - I adore Clayface, but if giving this up means that Mike Flanagan gets to adapt The Dark Tower series the way it should be adapted, I'd say this was a worthy sacrifice to make.)

With that clarification out of the way, there are really only a few questions left regarding Clayface's starring cinematic debut, and it shouldn't surprise you that the first one goes like this:

What is Clayface's release date?

James Watkins's DCU-canon horror movie Clayface, starring Tom Rhys Harries as the titular Matt Hagen, comes to theaters, appropriately, just in time for Halloween - October 23, 2026. Some of you may remember that the original release date for the movie was September 11 of this year, but that was updated by Warner Bros this past February. And honestly, for a monster movie, that makes a lot more sense to me.

Which brings us to our final question - what kind of a monster is Clayface anyway? Is he the pitiable Frankenstein sort or of the unrepentant Dracula mold (heh, mold)? In other words...

Is Clayface a hero or a villain?

Oof, boy. Let me start this answer by saying A.) I am no moral authority, and B.) the only reason I'm even including the question on here is that the internet seems to really want to know it (gotta get that SEO, folks). That's a real bummer, frankly, because the answer in my opinion is bound to be an anticlimactic one. Unless the fabric of DC Entertainment changes a great deal in the coming years, Clayface will always be some kind of villain.

Now, tack on a giant, shape-shifting BUT the end of that answer, because what's not anticlimactic is this: throughout his 80+ years of comic book history, Clayface has been a great example of how complex a comic book villain can be! The 1940s Basil Karlo is as blackhearted a thug as you can get, but the Matt Hagen of Batman: The Animated Series was a monster created by societal pressures. The DCU, meanwhile, seems to be walking a line between the two, with a pitiable Hagen appearing in the solo film and his pretty heartless (presumably) future self killing without a thought in Creature Commandos.

And just because his villain streak continues in the comics doesn't mean he hasn't had some sparkling moments of heroics as well - just read James Tynion IV's Detective Comics run and you'll see what we mean. In the medium that birthed him, Clayface's arc could be compared to that of Poison Ivy or Magneto - yes, they've done despicable things, but for reasons that are deeply understandable. His story tells us that sometimes what we call "villains" are just ordinary people people put under extraordinary pressure, and under different circumstances, they might have made better decisions. Like the actor that he's become, Clayface is proof that people are moldable.

Some more than others.

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time, and here's a list of all the free DC comics you can look forward to as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Days.