The DCU project Clayface remains something of a curiosity. It’s an odd choice to make a B-level Batman villain the centerpiece of the next big DC film following Superman and next year’s Supergirl, but that’s what they’re doing. And now we know who will be playing the shapeshifting baddie who smells like Play-Doh:Tom Rhys Harries.
Who?
Yeah, DC Studios went with a newer face to star in Clayface. Tom Rhys Harries recently starred opposite Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in The Return, Gerard Butler in Kandahar, and Matthew McConaughey in The Gentlemen.
Harries reportedly beat out Jack O’Connell (Sinners, 28 Years Later), Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), George MacKay (1917), and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus). No small feat because all of those actors are fantastic.
Gunn confirmed Deadline’s report on social media…
Clayface began life as a pitch by horror veteran and The Life of Chuck director Mike Flanagan. Last we heard, Flanagan’s script was being overhauled, with the most recent rewrites by Hossein Amini. James Watkins (Speak No Evil, The Woman in Black) is directing.
It’s unclear exactly which version of Clayface will appear in the movie, but it’s likely an amalgam of versions seen in DC Comics and Batman: The Animated Series. The most popular version follows a B-movie Hollywood actor who injects himself with a substance that makes his body malleable as clay. He adopts the identity of a character he played before, and turns to a life of crime. The film is expected to lean heavily into horror.
Clayface is expected to hit theaters on September 11th 2026.
