DCU co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have recently shed light on the upcoming film, *Clayface*, confirming its status as part of the DCU canon and its R rating. Clayface, originally a criminal from Gotham City, possesses the unique ability to transform his clay-like body into any form or person, making him one of Batman's most iconic adversaries. The character debuted as Basil Karlo in *Detective Comics #40* back in 1940.

DC Studios announced that *Clayface* is slated for release on September 11, 2026. The decision to greenlight this project was influenced by the success of HBO's *The Penguin* series. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan has been tapped to write the script, with Lynn Harris and *The Batman* director Matt Reeves set to produce.

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During a DC Studios presentation, Gunn and Safran emphasized why *Clayface* fits into the DCU rather than Matt Reeves’ *The Batman Epic Crime Saga*. "Clayface is totally DCU," Gunn stated. 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."

"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," Gunn explained. He also noted that Clayface wouldn't mesh well with the more grounded, non-super metahuman narrative of *The Batman Epic Crime Saga*, saying, "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*. The film is set to begin shooting 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 stated.

"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," Safran added.

Throughout the presentation, Safran described *Clayface* as "experimental," not fitting the mold of a traditional superhero tentpole movie, but rather an "indie style chiller." Gunn echoed this sentiment, 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."

Gunn confirmed that *Clayface* will definitely be R-rated. "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," Gunn concluded.