The first teaser for Clayface, DC’s upcoming body horror film take on the shapeshifting villain, was revealed today. I absolutely, under no circumstances, should have watched it. But I actually really enjoyed Superman and like where the DCU is going so far, so what the heck, let’s take a look. I’m sure it can’t be that bad.
Hey, no thanks! Nope! Goodbye! Too much!
Okay, in all seriousness, this looks quite promising. It’s unsettling and gross, but that eerie look from Matt Hagen (aka Clayface) throughout and the rapid teases of different…uh…molds, I guess, of his face are really effective. I think messing around with genre like this is a fun approach after years of relatively similar-ish superhero movies from both DC and Marvel, though I guess I worry about people not paying attention and trying to take kids to see this R-rated film thinking it’s a basic follow-up to Superman and Supergirl. Hopefully it’s obvious enough what this is from…everything.
There have been a lot of looming questions about Clayface‘s prospects ever since it was announced way back in December of 2024. First and foremost, it’s a body horror film, which is quite a jarring genre swap after the relative wholesomeness of Superman last year and the seemingly slightly-more-cynical-but-still-upbeat tone we’ve seen in Supergirl trailers thus far. I would also argue that Clayface isn’t necessarily the first villain you’d expect to get a standalone film like this in the DCU, though he’s not a deep cut, either. And I’m intrigued by the choice to make this Clayface specifically the Matt Hagen Clayface rather than the original Basil Karlo, while giving his chilling backstory of being disfigured by a Gotham gangster roots in Karlo’s different renditions rather than Hagen’s.
I’m also wondering how all this is going to work when the DCU does not yet, to my knowledge, have a Batman to fight this man. Then again, The Penguin was really good, and Batman is nowhere to be seen in that series. We shall not discuss Joker here.