DC Studios has released a trailer for “Clayface,” which will be released in theaters on October 23rd.
Directed by James Watkins, this horror film traces the origins of a shape-shifting villain played by Tom Rhys Harries. Clayface, who starts out as struggling actor Matt Hagen, gets his face cut with a knife and undergoes a highly experimental medical procedure. Although the experiment is initially successful, it ultimately does not go as planned, as the actors’ bodies turn into clay and morph into the appearance of any person.
DC Studios premiered the trailer to theater owners during this year’s CinemaCon. It begins with Matt lying in a hospital bed, his face covered in bloody bandages. After being attacked by a knife-wielding assailant, he is injected with a mysterious chemical that gives him shape-shifting powers. You can see that Matt’s face changes one after another, and at one point he loses his mouth and eyes. In the final moments of the trailer, he is seen completely wiping his face in the bathtub. The trailer also shows Clayface’s shadow turning his hands into giant mace-shaped fists.
Clayface was one of Batman’s earliest adversaries, first appearing in 1940 as a washed-up actor-turned-criminal wearing a clay-like mask of the character he once played. In 1961, Clayface’s shape-changing abilities were established. This will be the character’s on-screen appearance after being portrayed in several live-action and animated Batman films, including Ron Perlman in 1990’s Batman: The Animated Series, Brian McManamon in the 2010 Fox series Gotham, and most recently Alan Tudyk in HBO Max’s animated comedy Harley Quinn.
Harries’ other films include “White Lines,” “The Gentlemen,” “The Return,” directed by Uberto Pasolini, and “Suspicion.” Naomi Ackie also stars.
James Gunn launched the DC Universe with last year’s Superman. The studio is set to release Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl” on June 26th. Other upcoming DC titles include the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, scheduled for release on July 9, 2027, and Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part II, scheduled for release on October 1, 2027.
Check out the trailer for “Clayface” below.
