We Answered Every Single Question You Have About Clayface

You don’t need to have opened a Batman comic to know the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler. But even some hardcore comic fans and/or nerds might scratch their heads at the mention of Clayface. With a film of his own in theaters today, Gotham’s resident shape-shifter is about to become considerably better known, although putting a face to the name will remain a problem.

DC, home of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, is hoping that may turn out to be an advantage. Arriving in cinemas this Friday, Clayface takes a less familiar corner of Gotham City and gives it to James Watkins, the director of Eden Lake, The Woman in Black and Speak No Evil. His leading man is Tom Rhys Harries, whom you might remember as the doomed Ibiza DJ Axel Collins in Netflix’s White Lines. Here, he plays an actor whose attempt to repair his ruined face turns out to be a terrible, terrible idea.

Even if you're totally unfamiliar with comic book lore, there is still a straightforward proposition here: an ambitious man accepts a medical miracle, then discovers what it costs.

Who is Clayface?

There have been several, which is the sort of answer that makes people regret asking questions about comics. But bear with: the relevant history is fairly simple.

The first Clayface appeared in Detective Comics in 1940. Basil Karlo was an actor enraged by the prospect of his old horror film being remade without him. In his wrath, he adopted a monstrous disguise and began murdering members of the production. Originally, the monster was a costume.

A later version, Matt Hagen, acquired the ability to morph his body into different shapes. Then Batman: The Animated Series brought elements of the two together. Its 1992 two-parter “Feat of Clay” made Hagen a disfigured actor dependent on an experimental cream that allowed him to restore his appearance. His supplier exploited that dependence; the eventual result was a shape-shifting monster.

That is the essential appeal of the character. Beneath the extraordinary powers is a performer who can become almost anyone, and yet has lost control of himself.

What is the film about?

Harries plays Matt Hagen, whose rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man ends when a crime boss leaves him disfigured. With his career collapsing, he turns to a scientist, played by Naomi Ackie, for a treatment that restores his appearance. Alas, the treatment also begins to affect his mind, leaving him hell-bent on revenge.

Eddie Marsan, Max Minghella and David Dencik also star. The screenplay is credited to Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, from a story by Flanagan, whose work includes The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep. Watkins directs, with The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves among the producers.

Those names offer a useful indication of the intended audience. This is being sold as a horror thriller, with an actor’s physical and psychological deterioration at its center.

Why is DC making a horror film?

Clayface’s history supplies a ready-made subject for body horror: a man whose own flesh turns against him. For an actor, the loss of control over his face also threatens the thing that pays the bills.

“Probably the biggest inspiration was Cronenberg,” Watkins told Esquire Philippines. He singled out The Fly, in which a grotesque transformation matters because the audience has become invested in the people experiencing it. Watkins also flagged “the horror of losing your livelihood and your identity”.

The cast’s account suggests the film has other interests alongside its transformations. Minghella describes it as "a Gotham crime thriller," invoking Heat, while Ackie has discussed its noir atmosphere, plus the characters’ psychological decline.

There may be some commercial calculation here, too. The Associated Press reports a production budget of about $40 million, relatively modest by superhero standards. Horror has repeatedly shown how far a smaller budget can go: Longlegs took more than $125 million worldwide against a reported $10 million production budget, while this year’s Backrooms has taken about $400 million on a similar budget. Keeping costs down means a film does not need superhero-sized ticket sales to succeed, even allowing for marketing costs and the cinemas’ cut.

The hope is that someone might buy a ticket because they like horror, then discover they have taken a sidestep into the DC Universe.

Do you need to know Batman to watch it?

The filmmakers say no. “A lot of people wouldn’t necessarily know who Clayface is, but they wouldn’t need to,” Watkins told AP. “It’s its own movie.”

The character’s Batman connection should be enough to explain where he comes from. It does not mean you need to work through decades of comics, films and television before understanding a desperate actor’s decision to undergo an experimental treatment.

And will Batman himself turn up? The film takes place in Gotham, so it’s a reasonable question. Asked whether his character knows about the city’s most famous resident, Harries hinted at footage he couldn’t discuss. Whether that means an appearance, a passing reference or something that never made the final cut remains unclear.

Does Clayface fit into the DCU? And will he return?

Yes. Clayface belongs to the DC Universe overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the shared setting of Superman, Supergirl and Peacemaker. Despite Reeves’s involvement as a producer, it is separate from the world of Robert Pattinson’s The Batman and Colin Farrell’s The Penguin.

Clayface has already appeared in the DCU’s animated series Creature Commandos, voiced by Alan Tudyk. And Gunn has made clear that there are further plans for the character. Speaking to Cinemex at the film’s premiere, he said: “This isn’t the last we’ll see of Clayface.”

Where he turns up next has not been announced. Man of Tomorrow, Gunn’s follow-up to Superman, is scheduled for July 9 next year, but there is no confirmed Clayface appearance. Nor has a role been announced for him in The Brave and the Bold, the planned DCU Batman film. For now, we know he will return, but not where or when.

You suspect that's the way Clayface likes it.