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The DC Universe will soon be taking a visit to Gotham City as James Gunn's franchise continues to expand.
The DCU's Chapter 1: "Gods and Monsters" slate is going forward with numerous movies and TV shows building out Gunn's superhero reboot. Following Supergirl this summer, the next theatrical release will be a vastly darker adventure for DC Studios in the fall.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clayface director James Watkins finally addressed why Batman won't be showing up in the R-rated installment. The filmmaker stated, “The story is Clayface’s story, it’s Matt Hagen’s story. If you just took one person within the world of Gotham and followed their story, it’s about following the integrity of that. You don’t necessarily bump into any of these people…It’s just one big city. I can see why people worry about these things, but that’s not my job. My job is to worry about, Is this story honest to itself? and not try to think of ways to be cute, I suppose.”
Naomi Ackie, who plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr, joked about how "we were joking that we could go and get Rob to do a little cameo for us. But he was busy being Batman, saving another Gotham." According to the Clayface star, she had imagined it would be "through a window, you see Rob in his full gear. That’s what we were thinking.”
Given that The Brave and The Bold movie is still in development, it wouldn't make sense to have the DCU's Caped Crusader show up in Clayface, especially as casting won't happen until the script for Bruce Wayne's reboot is actually completed. To this point, Batman has only appeared through animated silent cameos in DC Studios' Creature Commandos.
In the same interview with EW, The Batman's Matt Reeves, who produced the 2026 DCU entry, shared why he wanted to explore another side of the Dark Knight's mythology, but in Gunn's continuity. He shared how "I’m drawn to the more grounded DC Comic characters, and coming off The Batman wanted to expand that interest to other characters and stories. Clayface presented a unique opportunity to dive into an origin story within a specific genre — it’s a tragic character journey wrapped in terrifying body horror.”
The Clayface story will explore the origin story of how Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries, becomes the iconic shape-shifting mud-monster, with the DCU being the first film franchise to bring the comic book villain to the big screen. DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran also confirmed that this takes place prior to Creature Commandos, and that it was indeed Matt who showed up in the animated series.
Even though Batman isn't showing up in Clayface, that doesn't mean the October feature won't have fun with the comic book canon. Watkins explained to EW that “There are little Easter eggs for those really in the know, but they’re very light sprinklings, whether it’s name references or occasional background references or visual illusions. If you didn’t know this world, you wouldn’t spot them — and they’re not there to pull people out [of the story].”
Time will tell what Clayface's future in the DCU looks like after his big-screen debut, as there are numerous directions that they can take with him after his solo story. But as DC Studios gets ready to head to Gotham City in the fall, audience members will hopefully get a better idea of where they are going with him beyond 2026.
Clayface is scheduled to open in theaters on October 23.
