‘Clayface’ Director James Watkins Explains That [SPOILER] Cameo, Introducing Gotham City to the DC Universe and All the Shape-Shifting Kills

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Clayface,” now playing in theaters. Batman fans will have to wait patiently for the next installment in Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader saga, but they can get a peek at the rebooted DC Universe’s Gotham City in “Clayface.” “Clayface” is an R-rated body horror that follows the shape-shifting Batman foe. It blends a supervillain origin story with some stomach-churning scares and comes from horror veterans including director James Watkins and a story by Mike Flanagan.

Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, an A-list actor who is brutally disfigured by a gangster. With his face ripped up and his career destroyed, Matt turns to an experimental procedure from Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), which heals him — but slowly turns him into a clay-covered monster.

Matt’s blood cells gain the ability to transform and instantly reshape his body into someone else, such as Corr or the gangster who disfigured him or even his own father (played in a quick cameo by Aaron Paul). He loses control of his own body and sanity as these newfound shape-shifting powers help him enact bloody revenge on the mob who ruined his life. In the end, Matt kills everybody who wronged him (plus several innocent people), and is forced to live as a reclusive mud monster in the sewers.

Clayface has appeared in many Batman comics through the years, and he’s a classic villain who’s made the crossover into animated shows and video games. This version of him has also technically already appeared in the rebooted DC Universe in James Gunn’s animated series “Creature Commandos,” but now the monster gets his own origin story and live-action debut. The movie also gives the first look at Batman’s hometown of Gotham City in the new DC Universe.

Gunn’s “Superman” kicked things off in Metropolis last year, but now another one of DC’s most famous cities gets unveiled in “Clayface.” With Variety, Watkins explains finding the final Clayface monster look, recruiting Paul for his cameo and creating Gotham City. The Clayface name has been used by several villains in Batman comics. How did you land on the Matt Hagen version instead of the first iteration, Basil Karlo?

It was really landed by Mike Flanagan and the script. I read all of them, Basil Karlo and all, afterward because there are bits and bobs that are kind of cherry-picked from all over the place. But the key journey, and that’s what Mike had chosen, was the Matt Hagen version.