Clayface just got its first trailer, and Warner Bros. is making a clear play for a darker corner of the DCU. Director James Watkins is steering the film, which stars Tom Rhys Harries as Clayface / Matt Hagen and Naomi Ackie as Dr. Caitlyn Corr, with Warner Bros. setting the theatrical release for October 23, 2026. That matters because this isn’t being sold like a standard superhero outing; it’s being framed as a body-horror movie with a very different tone from the DCU’s earlier projects.
Quick Facts — Clayface
| Developer | Universal Studios Hollywood Hub |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Warner Bros. |
| Release Date | October 23, 2026 |
The trailer also puts the rest of the film’s setup on the table. Matt Hagen is an up-and-coming actor whose career gets cut short when a mobster horrifically scars his face, and he turns to Corr’s experimental procedure in search of a fix. The catch is obvious and ugly: the treatment comes at a heavy cost, Hagen transforms into a clay-like monster, and he sets out to punish the people who wronged him. For DC fans, that’s the hook. Warner Bros. is asking whether a Gotham City-based horror story can land where so many glossy comic-book spinoffs have struggled.
About Clayface
Warner Bros. released the first trailer for the DCU film, and the studio is clearly positioning it as something stranger than the usual cape-and-cowl fare. The movie comes from director James Watkins and stars Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan, and David Dencik. Warner Bros. also confirmed the theatrical release date: October 23, 2026. That gives the film a long runway, but it also means the trailer has to do a lot of heavy lifting now.
What stands out most is the film’s tone. The trailer leans hard into a distinctly body horror-flavored vibe, which is a sharp turn for a universe that has already included James Gunn's Superman, Peacemaker Season 2, and the animated series Creature Commandos. In practical terms, that means Warner Bros. is not selling clean heroic spectacle here. It’s selling discomfort, transformation, and the kind of visual grotesquerie that should make Matt Hagen’s change feel personal rather than just flashy.