James Gunn confirms Clayface age rating and DC fans should be excited

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According to director James Gunn, Clayface is poised to steer the DC Universe towards a grim path. He’s made it clear that the upcoming “body horror” film will carry a mature rating due to its graphic and adult content.

2021 saw Mike Flanagan (known for his works like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass) voicing his enthusiasm about creating a chilling horror movie centered around the shape-shifting antagonist, Clayface, who is a prominent Batman adversary.

Initially, he felt that the initial gatherings with DC didn’t lead to any substantial progress… but everything changed once Gunn and Peter Safran were appointed as co-CEOs. As stated by Clayface during the DC Studios Showcase podcast, “Clayface wasn’t part of our original plans.

But everything shifted when Flanagan presented his idea. “Wow, that’s amazing,” Gunn said he thought, and now it’s underway as a film for DCU.

Clayface will be an R-rated horror movie

In the podcast discussion, Gunn confirmed that Clayface is likely to be an R-rated film. He clarified that while the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hasn’t reviewed it yet, the content appears to be quite intense, suggesting an R rating.

For those not familiar, Clayface isn’t simply a single villain in the comics. Instead, it’s a pseudonym adopted by multiple supervillains. As DC Comics puts it, Clayface is a complex and versatile antagonist whose form changes as fluidly as the mud that constitutes his body.

In a similar vein, during the DC Rebirth era, Basil Karlo was a thespian who suffered a disfiguring accident in a car crash. To regain his former appearance, he resorted to medication. However, an overdose of this drug resulted in him metamorphosing into a metahuman with a clay-like form.

According to James Gunn, both he and Matt Reeves were left astounded by Tom Rhys Harries’ tryout for the upcoming DC Universe character, Clayface.

— ScreenTime (@screentime) June 17, 2025

As reported by The Wrap, the upcoming movie is set to portray the character based on Matt Hagen, an adventurous treasure seeker who accidentally plunges into a radioactive pool of protoplasm. This role will be brought to life by Tom Rhys Harries.

What’s fascinating about Clayface is… when we were creating horror films like The Belko Experiment, I thought to myself, ‘If we had this script for a horror movie that wasn’t part of the DCU, we would have been eager to produce it,'” Gunn explained.

This film is an outstanding example of the horror genre, specifically focusing on body horror. It’s both intellectually stimulating and entertaining, making it a perfect fit for my preferred type of terror – the kind that explores physical transformations and abnormalities.

On July 11, 2026, you can expect Superman to kick off the DCU, while Supergirl will make her appearance a month earlier on June 26, 2026. The villain Clayface is slated for release on September 11, 2026.

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2025-06-20 17:18