‘Pure F--king Horror’: DC Studios Has Revealed Key Details About Mike Flanagan’s Clayface, And It’s Easily My Most Anticipated DC Universe Movie

DC Comics artwork of Clayface
(Image credit: DC Comics)

There are a number of exciting upcoming DC movies, including Superman, Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow and The Batman: Part II, but the title that I’m anticipating most of all on the DC Studios slate is Clayface. To be fair, this has been true for a while now, as I’m a big Mike Flanagan fan, and I’ve spent years curious about his vision for the shapeshifting Batman villain, but my extreme desire to see the film just about peaked this past week when I had the chance to hear DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran talk about the developing project and reveal some key details.

This past Friday, I was part of a small group of journalists invited to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California for a presentation/conversation with the DC Studios executives, and of the many titles they discussed, one that they clearly demonstrated a lot of passion for was Clayface. Safran confirmed that conversations are on-going with director James Watkins (Speak No Evil, The Woman In Black) to bring Mike Flanagan’s script to life, and production will begin this summer in advance of a fall 2026 release – but what principally raised eyebrows in the room were revelations about the approach.

James Gunn And Peter Safran Were Clearly Blown Away By Mike Flanagan’s Clayface Script

It may sound a bit crazy that one of the first films being produced as part of the DC Universe puts a spotlight on a Batman villain who has never before been featured in a live-action Batman blockbuster, but the speed of the movie’s progress can be seen as a direct reflection of its perceived potential. Gunn and Safran repeatedly noted that the DC Studios project pipeline in general is determined by the individual quality of the scripts in development (cameras don’t start rolling unless there is a well-polished screenplay), and they love what they have with Clayface.

Both DC executives have roots in the horror genre (Gunn’s credits including Dawn of the Dead and Slither, and Safran having produced all of the movies in the Conjuring universe), and they explained that they would have wanted to develop Mike Flanagan’s Clayface script long before they got their current jobs. Said Gunn,

One of the things Peter and I talked about when we first got the script is if we were producing movies five years ago, like 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.

Safran described the story in the film as being “equally resonant, compelling, and in many ways more terrifying” than the stories of The Penguin and the Joker, and highlighted the exact kind of scares the film will generate: get ready for some “incredible body horror”!

James Gunn Promises Clayface Will Be R-Rated And Both “Psychological” And “Gross”

Following the immense success of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance in 2024, now seems to be a particularly great time to be exploring the subgenre of body horror, and that means that Clayface is seemingly coming together at a perfect time. The movie will be firmly rooted in what is being built for the DC Universe (it was specifically explained that it will not connect to Matt ReevesThe Batman trilogy), and it will evidently not be pulling punches in terms of content.

While explaining how there is no “house style” guiding the DC Universe and contrasting the different projects that are on the way in the coming years, James Gunn said,

Then we have Clayface: pure fucking horror. Like totally real. Their version of that movie, it is so real and true and psychological and body horror and gross... It's definitely R-rated.

We don’t currently know how Mike Flanagan’s script for Clayface will either adapt the comics or invent a new approach to the character, but the original villain from the comics was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane and introduced in June 1940’s Detective Comics #40. He was initially an actor-turned-crime lord, but later incarnations with different backstories saw him reintroduced as a shapeshifting monster.

Flanagan won’t direct Clayface himself presumably because he is busy this year taking the helm of the next film in the Exorcist franchise and developing his adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, but Peter Safran made it sound as though the deal with James Watkins is nearly done. Casting will commence once the film has its director, and we’ll hopefully learn even more details about the project when actors sign on.

Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more about Clayface, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 11, 2026 (a few months after Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, which is flying into theaters on June 26, 2026).

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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