R-Rated Batman Villain's Movie Gets Mike Flanagan's Official Verdict

Published Oct 18, 2026, 5:28 PM EDT Andy Behbakht has worked as an entertainment journalist since 2010, covering all the latest in Hollywood on both the big and small screens, from staying on top of the biggest breaking news, analyzing movies and television shows in Hollywood, to in-depth interviews with actors and storytellers. Andy's career includes having worked for publications such as FanSided, KSiteTV, TV Fanatic, It's Just Movies, Heroic Hollywood, TV Overmind, and more. Outside of his career as an established reporter, Andy is the host and producer of The Showrunner Whisperer, The Flash Podcast, the editor-in-chief of Multiverse of Color, and the network director of DC TV Podcasts. The DC Universe is about to take a big visit to Gotham City this fall. As the DCU's Chapter 1: "Gods and Monsters" continues to expand, audience members have seen various mythologies start to get explored, from Superman and Supergirl's Kryptonian mythology to the complexity of the Green Lantern Corps. However, as 2026 gets closer to its end, the franchise is now taking it to the Batman lore, with one of his most iconic villains getting the spotlight. With Clayface being only days away from releasing in theaters, Mike Flanagan, who wrote the script for the R-rated DCU horror installment, has officially given his verdict on the project through his Letterboxd account. As the feature is currently in the premiere circuit, the Hollywood creative shared the following on his comic book film: The upcoming DCU movie stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, as the latest entry in James Gunn's franchise will explore how the Hollywood actor becomes the famous shape-shifting monster. Not only is it DC Studios' first R-rated film, but it will mark Clayface's big-screen debut, as the character has mostly been depicted through TV shows, particularly in animation. During a recent interview with ScreenRant's own Ash Crossan, James Watkins was directly asked what changes were made to Flanagan's original script, as Hossein Amini was hired to work on the screenplay too. The director shared, "Well, the bones of Mike’s script obviously were the reason why I wanted to do the project. He wrote this kind of—I thought it was the tragedy, I guess, the arc of Matt Hagen and the relationship with Caitlin and the idea of how this man becomes a monster. So really, that didn’t change." Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order. Watkins elaborated how "it was more like how to finesse elements within it. And that always naturally happens when you’re developing a project. You learn stuff talking to the actors, things change in shooting, things often change in post. So it was just trying to find the kind of—lean into some of the areas." He explained that he "leaned into a couple of things, for example, with Matt. I wanted to make sure that it was very clear, in terms of him being really relatable up front, that this wasn’t just a story of vanity." He commented on Matt's overall arc in the Clayface movie, as the British director said how "this was a guy that worked really hard to get where he’d got, and that actually his face as an actor is his instrument. And to have that smashed up is like being a concert pianist and having your hands smashed up." For him, "it’s like the relatability of that is like if everyone could relate to losing their livelihood or their reputation or their identity in some way. So little things like that. So it was just little calibrations all the way along the journey. Yeah." Once it was decided that it was going to be set in the DCU, Watkins talked about the discussions that they had about fitting it into Gunn's franchise, and what players to utilize from the canon, as he shared the following: James Watkins: I mean, what was interesting is it came to me as this sort of [unclear] script and standalone. One of the things that appealed to me is that you don’t have to have a doctorate in DC studies to go and watch this movie. Anyone can go in, right? And the idea that—and James Gunn and Peter Safran, they gave me such freedom. They were like, “Okay, we want…” Because I kind of pitched the version of it, and they were like, “Yeah, we love that version of it, so just go with it.” And so there was never any mandate or any… The whole kind of noises off, that people talk about this and that. I was just like, “Okay, how do I tell the best version of this story?” Clayface opens in theaters on October 23. Release Date October 23, 2026 Runtime 108 Minutes Director James Watkins Cast Tom Rhys Harries Matt Hagen / Clayface Naomi Ackie Dr. Caitlin Bates