Clayface director responds to fan backlash over the shape-shifter's anti-hero reframing

• Clayface's director has waded into the debate over the Batman foe's reframing as an anti-hero
• Some DC Comics fans are upset about this recharacterization
• James Watkins says it "doesn't really matter" how the shape-shifter is described

Clayface director James Watkins has responded to the fierce fan backlash surrounding the shape-shifter being labeled as an anti-hero, rather than a villain, in the new DC Universe (DCU) movie.

Prior to the body horror film's release, some DC comic book fans expressed their confusion and/or frustration at the eponymous metahuman being called an anti-hero.

Indeed, the DC Studios section of the Skydance website describes him as a "chilling Gotham anti-hero". Furthermore, in Clayface's production notes, multiple members of its cast and crew, including Watkins himself, defined the titular Batman foe in the same way.

As fans continue to clash over the terminology used, even lead star Tom Rhys Harries was asked for his thoughts on how we should characterize Clayface in his self-titled film. Asked by WhoLetUsOut about whether viewers should view Clayface as the origin story of anti-hero or villain, Rhys Harries replied: "I think it's villain... the track that the film takes, there's a point where I think Matt crosses a moral, ethical line and there's no returning from."

With Rhys Harries planting his flag on one side of the divide, I had to ask Watkins if he stood by his assessment that, in the DCU at least, Matt Hagen and his superpowered alter-ego is more of an anti-hero than a traditional villain, and what he'd say to diehard fans who'd been upset by how Clayface was being described.

"Well, I would say to anyone: Watch the film before you judge it," Watkins replied.

"For me, it's a journey of a character, and the origination of a monster. So, when you find Matt Hagen he's a very relatable, good guy, and then awful things happen to him that inspire traumatic responses, or whatever you want to call it, and that sets him on this pathway and the darkening of the character. One of the reasons why we cast Tom was we wanted somebody that could take us on that journey and have us root for this character for as long as possible, because I think that's important.

"But, I don't mind how people describe him," Watkins added. "They can call him a hero, an anti-hero, or a villain — it doesn't really matter to me. I think all of those things are allowable and people can have different points of view."

For more on the DCU Chapter One movie, check out my Clayface review and then see why Watkins declined to confirm where Clayface officially sits on the DCU timeline.