DC Studios dropped the first teaser trailer for Clayface on Tuesday, offering an early look at one of the more unexpected entries in James Gunn and Peter Safran's rebooted DC Universe.
The footage follows an up-and-coming actor, played by Tom Rhys Harries, whose face is disfigured by a gangster. Desperate, he turns to a scientist played by Naomi Ackie, who transforms his body into clay. The teaser leans hard into body horror, the genre that director James Watkins and the script's authors were clearly aiming for.
The film is written by Mike Flanagan, director of Doctor Sleep and known for his Netflix horror work, alongside Hossein Amini. Watkins, whose credits include the 2022 thriller Speak No Evil, is directing. The project carries an expected R rating, putting it in company with Todd Phillips' 2019 Joker, which also served as a villain origin story. Unlike that film, however, Clayface is considered part of the main DC Universe continuity rather than a standalone world.
The film's existence came together unusually fast. As recently as February, Gunn told reporters that DC Studios had "no plans" for a Clayface movie. Then Flanagan delivered a script. "It's one of the best scripts that we've read," Gunn said at the time.
Safran has spoken directly to the challenge of introducing a villain less familiar to general audiences than the Joker or the Penguin. "Clayface might not be as widely known," he said, "but we really feel that his story is equally resonant, compelling, and in many ways, more terrifying." Gunn added the film will feel "totally real" and described it as "true and psychological and body horror and gross."
The studio is positioning Clayface as part of a second theatrical wave following last year's Superman. Supergirl arrives first, on June 26. Clayface follows on October 23, timed to the Halloween season.
