DC Studios is no stranger to having multiple versions of one character happening. Hell, in the last decade or so, we’ve seen no less than five different Batman actors. But the most recent DC hot commodity is quite the strange one.
Deadline recently broke a story focusing on Doctor Sleep‘s Mike Flanagan pitching his version of Clayface, one of Batman’s most fearsome foes, to the studio. In Flanagan’s pitch, he seems to be taking a page from the Universal Horror playbook and wants this tragic baddie to do something more heroic.
Back in 2021, Flanagan even tweeted his want to tackle this character. Check out the tweet below…
Well I've wanted to do a Superman movie since I was a kid, but I would also be really keen to do a standalone Clayface movie as a horror/thriller/tragedy. https://t.co/68nZFLOGLT
— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) January 8, 2021
In the Deadline story, they note that “Flanagan and his Intrepid Pictures partner Trevor Macy had a meeting with DC Bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran.” Could this be part of DC Studio’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold movie that was announced? While we have not seen official confirmation on any news, the reports say the answer wasn’t a no.
With that being said, other sources tell Deadline that Clayface is being looked at as a critical part in the upcoming Reeves’ sequel, The Batman Part II. As Matt Reeves looks to return to Gotham with Robert Pattinson’s Batman once again, a new foe is needed, and something as haunting as Clayface could fit the tone nicely.
Clayface was first introduced as part of Detective Comics #40 in June 1940. The original version, Basil Karlo, was a B-list actor who began a life of crime using the identity of a villain that he had portrayed in a horror film. We’d later see Preston Payne become the third Clayface, which would gain the more iconic clay-like creature.
For Batman fans, it’s just a surprise to see Clayface get his long-overdue time in the spotlight. Given the story’s origins, Flanagan could make a classic gothic horror story out of this. In contrast, Reeves could easily make this a more grounded character, as we saw in the original Detective Comics.
