Originally published June 17, 2025. Updated July 27, 2025.
DC Studios has found its lead for its Clayface movie, with up and coming Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries signing on for the title role in director James Watkins’ (Speak No Evil) horror-tinged DC Comics adaptation.
Harries is best known for his roles in Apple TV+’s Suspicion and the Ralph Fiennes-led The Return, while his other credits include Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, the Gerard Butler action thriller Kandahar, and the recent Doctor Who episode ‘Dot and Bubble’.
Harris is said to have won the role against competition from Jack O’Connell (28 Years Later), George MacKay (1917) and Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).
“After a long and incredibly exhaustive search, we finally have our DCU Clayface in Tom Rhys Harries,” announced DC Studios co-chief James Gunn on social media. “Both Matt Reeves and I were just blown away by this guy, and can’t wait for you to see this film, directed by James Watkins and written by Mike Flanagan.”
Described as “a Hollywood horror story”, Clayface will take its inspiration from the original incarnation of the character and follow a B-movie actor whose use of a substance to stay relevant drives him criminally insane, as well as altering his body into a shape-shifting clay-like substance.
Clayface is set to film in the UK and is slated for release on September 11th 2026. It will mark the third film from James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe after next month’s Superman and the now officially-retitled Supergirl, which is set to open on June 26th 2026. Several other projects are in development, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the recently-confirmed Wonder Woman reboot.
