Clayface Star Teases Villain’s Epic Final Form in DC Movie, And It’s Being Compared to an Iconic Blockbuster
When James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed their first wave of movies and TV shows for the new DCU, it included a slew of major swings and characters that hadn’t had their time in the spotlight. Though titles like Superman and Supergirl have been released, with Lanterns debuting this August, the DCU is already evolving beyond those titles. One film that wasn’t part of the original announcement that is already set to be released soon was Clayface, the spinoff about the Batman villain that filmmaker Mike Flanagan has been talking about as a passion project for years. Now, it’s happening.
Flanagan had spoken about the idea long before James Gunn took over DC, but his passion for the material and a good script got it greenlit. Though best known to comic book readers and DC fans for being the giant clay-based villain who can shape his body into weapons and disguises, the upcoming film will put a much more tragic lens on the character’s origin. The first teaser trailer has already confirmed a healthy twinge of body horror will be front and center, and now we know that the version of Clayface fans expect is going to be in the movie, but the team is saving him, comparing his appearances to the shark from Jaws.
Clayface’s Final Form Will Be Like the Shark in Jaws
Speaking in a new interview with EW, Clayface director James Watkins confirmed that the final form of Clayface will be totally hidden from the marketing of the movie, with the DC movie going the route of recent horror hits like Longlegs and Weapons that obscured their villains deliberately in the trailers. “You don’t want to show the shark,” Watkins said, hinting at the film going by the Jaws playbook. “I think people give away too much…I believe in the power of mystery and the power of suggestion and the power of people putting two and two together. I think it’s more fun.”
Tom Rhys Harries, who plays the titular character in the film, starting out as actor Matt Hagen before he begins his shift into Clayface across the movie, had another tease for the film that also fits the Jaws comparison, just not how fans may expect. Given the nature of Clayface’s physiology, fans might assume that the final form of the villain will be a giant CGI monster, but Harries seemed to tease that it was actually a practical effect that was built to put something in front of the camera.
“It’s been a year since I saw that thing being built out. I can’t wait for people to see it,” Harries teased. “I’m constantly in awe of the huge creative machinery that goes into making a film like this, and how talented everybody on board is, and how lucky I felt to be a part of that in any way.”
Though this is far from confirmation that Clayface’s final form will be a giant animatronic like “Bruce” in Jaws, it sure sounds like Harries saw something being physically constructed for his character’s big transformation. In any event, one assumes that this means the Batman villain who has lived in the pages of comics since the 1940s will finally get his due on the big screen. Compared to some villains’ first outings on the big screen, like Mr. Freeze and Bane in Batman & Robin, it seems like justice will be done the first time.
