DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have shed light on the highly anticipated Clayface movie, confirming its place within the DCU canon and its R rating. Clayface, known for his shape-shifting abilities, is a classic Batman adversary who first appeared as Basil Karlo in Detective Comics #40 back in 1940. The film, slated for a September 11, 2026 release, was greenlit following the success of HBO's The Penguin series. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan has penned the screenplay, with Lynn Harris and The Batman director Matt Reeves set to produce.

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During a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn and Safran elaborated on why Clayface is integral to the DCU, distinguishing it from Matt Reeves’ The Batman Epic Crime Saga. "Clayface is totally DCU," Gunn affirmed. Safran added, "The only thing that's in Matt's world, his Crime Saga that he's telling, is the Batman Trilogy, the Penguin series, that's in that lane. So still under DC Studios, still under us. We have an incredible relationship with Matt, but those are the only things."

Gunn emphasized the importance of including Clayface in the DCU: "It was important that Clayface be part of the DCU. It's an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world." He further noted that Clayface's narrative wouldn't fit within the more grounded world of The Batman Epic Crime Saga, stating, "It was very outside of the grounded non-super metahuman characters in Matt's world."

Safran revealed that DC Studios is in negotiations with James Watkins, the director of Speak No Evil, to helm Clayface, with filming set to begin this summer. "This summer, cameras are going to roll on Clayface, an incredible body horror film that reveals a compelling origin of a classic Batman villain, and this is another title that we added to the slate on the strength of an exceptional screenplay by Mike Flanagan," Safran explained.

He added, "I think some of you are probably aware that we're in negotiations with James Watkins now to direct, and we'll start casting this as soon as we have the director deal done and we'll shoot this summer. It's slated for a fall 2026 release. Clayface might not be as widely known as The Penguin or The Joker, but we really feel that his story is equally resonant, compelling, and in many ways, more terrifying than one of those."

Throughout the presentation, Safran described Clayface as "experimental," diverging from the traditional superhero blockbuster mold, and an "indie style chiller." Gunn, on the other hand, praised the film's intense horror elements, calling it "pure f\*\*\*ing horror, like, totally real. Their version of that movie, it is so real and true and psychological and body horror and gross."

Confirming the film's mature rating, Gunn stated, "Clayface is, perhaps unsurprisingly, definitely R rated." He elaborated on their enthusiasm for the project, saying, "I think that one of the things Peter and I talked about when we first got the script is if we were producing movies five years ago when we were doing Belko Experiment and all of that stuff, and somebody had brought us this horror script called Clayface about this guy, we would have died to have produced this movie, because it was just a really excellent body horror script, and the fact that it's in the DCU is just a plus."