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After hearing that the newest DC Universe Batman movie is set to be inspired by two of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, I’m even more excited to see the upcoming DC movie. While the DC Universe timeline will properly kick off with 2025’s Superman movie, 2026 will see the franchise expand more in earnest, with not one but two upcoming movies currently confirmed for this time period. With the DCU’s Batman movie The Brave and the Bold seemingly some way off on the horizon, the fact one of these 2026 DCU movies is about a Batman villain seems all the more notable.
DC has been no stranger to giving Batman’s rogues gallery their own central on-screen stories, with the Gotham show revolving around the Penguin’s rise to villainy as much as it did Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne’s own respective stories, and the Joker getting two DC movies between 2018 and 2024, to varying success. However, this upcoming DC Universe movie looks set to put the spotlight on a more underrated antagonist – and the decision to draw from some of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series to do so has made this prospect all the more promising to me.
I’ve Already Been Seriously Excited For The Next Upcoming Batman Villain Movie Since It Was Announced
The announcement that a DC Universe movie centered on the Batman villain Clayface had been officially greenlit was seriously exciting news to me, given Clayface has historically been one of Batman’s best comic antagonists, and one of his most criminally overlooked when it comes to DC’s live-action movies and shows. As such, giving the often surprisingly emotionally complicated story of the character its own spotlight counteracts this on-screen history, and lets broader audiences get a chance to see the unique story potential of the figure in full force.
Clayface is set to release in September 2026, only a few months after Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow‘s June 2026 debut.
Better yet, the promise that this Clayface movie would lean into the horror territory of being transformed into a living, breathing, shapeshifting person made of clay – as confirmed by Peter Safran’s comments at a DC Studios presentation ScreenRant was in attendance for, wherein he described the upcoming movie as a “body horror” film – really reinforces the idea it can look at Clayface as more than just a moustache-twirling comic book villain. Joker proved there’s a market for tragic and complex supervillain origin stories, and while Clayface looks set to be very different, this commonality bodes well here.
This is especially true given Clayface will have more room to go as far into the nightmarish prospect of Clayface’s transformation and loss of his human form thanks to the film’s promised R-rating, much as 2018’s Joker managed years earlier with the same rating. While I don’t think an R-rating is necessarily needed to create mature superhero stories, giving a DC horror movie as much room to breathe as possible in terms of what it can and can’t do also seems a particularly wise move, and one I’m optimistic will pay off in delightfully horrifying fashion.
Finally, the conversations about how Clayface came to be strongly suggest there’s real appeal in this upcoming chapter of DC’s movie roster. According to James Gunn in an December 2024 DC Universe interview, there hadn’t been initial plans to make a Clayface movie, but iconic horror writer and director Mike Flanagan provided a powerful pitch for the film that led to its inception, with even Gunn expressing surprise about the matter. Based on this installment coming to be seemingly because of the strength of its pitch, it seems there’s already a precedent for the Clayface movie to shock and amaze.
The News One Of The Best Stories In Batman: The Animated Series Is An Inspiration For The Clayface Movie Makes It Sound Even More Promising
In a June 2024 interview with ComicBook.com to promote The Life of Chuck, Clayface writer Mike Flanagan also delved into his thoughts on the DCU movie and its screenplay, which he noted was still currently undergoing some revisions. However, Flanagan delved into one prominent inspiration that had been on his mind when writing the script, stating:
“Of course it was. I mean that is the perfect [story]… ‘Feat of Clay,’ Ron Perlman, to me, that’s it. That two-parter knocked me out. The short answer is that is absolutely what inspired my script. That is the world I wanted to live in. Batman: The Animated Series when I was growing up was my Batman. As much as [Michael] Keaton was my Batman, The Animated Series really was my Batman.”
As someone who has cherished Batman: The Animated Series since childhood – and who has only grown to love the series more growing up and seeing just how well it holds up to the tests of time – the idea Clayface will be drawing from the Animated Series episode that brought the villain into the cartoon’s world is a seriously promising prospect. The two-part Feat of Clay story is arguably one of Batman: The Animated Series‘ absolute best to begin with, and, by proxy, one of the strongest depictions thus far of how Clayface can be simultaneously sympathetic and yet villainous on-screen.
Feat of Clay delves into actor Matt Hagen’s transformation into Clayface – having been intentionally overdosed with the chemical substance he’d been using to alter his face after a car accident by the gang he’d been working for in order to get more – and his subsequent breakdown upon realizing his life and body as he knew it is lost forever. This is combined in with the fascinating story of Hagen using the chemical to disguise himself to look like Bruce Wayne so as to frame him for some shady deals the gang’s leader, Roland Daggett, is actually behind.
All in all, this means the story of Feat of Clay provides action, intrigue, a healthy dose of horror, and a genuinely fascinating character arc and villain origin story for Clayface all in the span of around 40 minutes. While this isn’t the only time Batman: The Animated Series managed to provide a range of story delights in a limited timeframe, it certainly paints a promising picture for Clayface if the movie is inspired by these two episodes – especially since Feat of Clay’s depiction of the Clayface transformation managed to be unsettling even whilst being child-friendly.
The DCU’s Upcoming Clayface Movie Seems Like Exactly What The Franchise Needs
With so many superhero movies following a generally broadly similar formula, something as unusual and unique-feeling as a supervillain origin story about a Batman villain who becomes basically made of clay is perhaps primed to get a more positive reception from audiences than ever. Ultimately, the narrative seems custom-made to feel entirely different to the genre’s norm, even if it likely explores the familiar world of Gotham, and letting the movie be a horror film and an R-rated installment seem like decisions that will only bolster Clayface’s ability to make itself distinctive.
However, Clayface also looks very exciting even without comparing it to its superhero genre peers. Where some movies in the superhero genre need to rely more on the fact that there’s a pre-established world or franchise that audiences will already be invested in, the core premise of Clayface is one that arguably would appeal to prospective viewers whether it was a part of the DCU or simply a horror movie without the backdrop of DC’s movie world to build on. As such, it may well prove to be the best of both worlds for the DC Universe upon its release.
The DC Universe is one of the biggest comic book franchises and often competes with Marvel. DC Comics started as National Allied Publications, founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1935. Since then, the franchise has exploded with thousands of comic books, movies, TV shows, and video games. 2013 marked the beginning of the most recent iteration of the superheroes, with Zack Snyder introducing Henry Cavill as Superman. After several movies with mixed reviews, DC underwent a soft reboot under the helm of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Clayface is a feature film centered around the shapeshifting Batman villain. The movie, described as a horror, thriller, and tragedy, explores the darker dimensions of this iconic character within the DC Universe.
Upcoming DC Movie Releases
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