Clayface may be heading to theaters before the DCU’s Batman makes a live-action entrance, but Tom Rhys Harries sees no reason to treat Matt Hagen as a mere warm-up act. The actor, who plays the title character in Clayface, says the villain’s powers put him at a decisive advantage over Gotham’s famously prepared protector.
“Yeah I could take Batman out,” Harries said. “Clayface is so overpowered comparative to Batman. I can become anyone. I can become anything.”
That is an appropriately huge claim for a character whose central ability is not simply brute force. The film’s version of Hagen begins as an actor who is disfigured and pursues extreme treatment in an effort to recover his former life and career. Instead, the treatment transforms him into a shapeshifting clay monster. Harries’ description points to the storytelling question that follows: once Hagen can properly control that transformation, what does he choose to do with it?
That distinction matters. A powerful villain can be dangerous in a direct fight; a shapeshifter can make uncertainty itself dangerous. If Clayface can become anyone or anything, the threat is not limited to whether Batman can physically defeat him. It is also whether Batman can know whom to trust, what he is looking at, and when a supposedly ordinary situation has become a trap.
Why Clayface’s power set changes the Batman equation
In straightforward comic-book matchups, Batman is often framed around preparation, investigation, technology and tactical thinking rather than superhuman abilities. Harries’ argument is that Clayface’s sheer flexibility overwhelms those conventional advantages.
Shapeshifting is the ability to alter one’s physical form. In the terms Harries lays out, it means Clayface can impersonate people and assume other forms. That creates several kinds of leverage at once:
- Infiltration: A villain who can look like another person can potentially get close without announcing a confrontation.
- Deception: Identity becomes unstable, which raises the stakes of every interaction.
- Adaptability: The ability to become “anything,” as Harries puts it, implies a threat that cannot be evaluated like a fixed opponent.
- Psychological pressure: A hero accustomed to reading a scene may need to question the scene’s basic reality.
None of that confirms a Batman-versus-Clayface battle in the film, and it does not establish that Clayface is literally unbeatable. Harries is making the case for the character’s potential, not revealing a specific plot outcome. Still, it is a useful way to understand why Clayface belongs so naturally in Batman’s orbit in the comics. His menace is built around transformation, performance and uncertainty—ideas that are especially potent in a city associated with secrets, masks and vigilantism.
There is another layer to Harries’ remarks. Hagen is an actor before his transformation, and Clayface’s powers turn the concept of performance into something physical and extreme. The supplied details do not say which identities he assumes or how the film uses his abilities, but the basic premise creates a sharp tension: a man seeking to regain his old self becomes someone capable of being virtually anyone else.
Control, rather than power alone, appears central to Matt Hagen
Harries does not describe Clayface simply as a monster who suddenly has an advantage over Batman. He emphasizes the moment “once Matt gains control over his powers.” That wording suggests a character arc rooted in mastery: Hagen’s transformation creates frightening capability, but capability and control are not the same thing.
For audiences, that makes the origin-story framing important. The premise starts with a personal crisis—disfigurement and an attempt to restore a former life—before escalating into an extraordinary transformation. The dramatic interest is therefore likely to rest as much on choice as on spectacle. What does a person do after gaining the capacity to alter appearance at will? Does he seek restoration, revenge, escape, influence, or something else entirely?
Those questions are not answers the available information supplies, so they should remain questions rather than predictions. But Harries himself identifies them as the key dramatic territory. Once Clayface can use his powers intentionally, the issue becomes purpose. That is a more interesting framing than a simple debate over whether he can punch harder than Batman.
It also sets up a possible contrast between the two characters without requiring Batman to be physically present. Batman is a defining shadow over Gotham, while Clayface is a figure who can exploit the human identities within it. One is a symbol recognized by a city; the other may be able to weaponize the city’s inability to recognize who is real.
Gotham is present even when Batman is not
Director James Watkins has described a Gotham in which Batman feels nearby by virtue of the setting itself. “You’re in a city called Gotham,” Watkins said. “So I guess you feel the shadow of the Bat inherently. Because of the nature of where you are.”
That is a significant approach for Clayface. The movie is positioned as the closest the DCU has come to Batman’s world in live action, even though the Dark Knight has not yet made his own live-action debut in the franchise. Gotham does not need a Batman cameo to carry Batman-related meaning; its name, reputation and place in this corner of DC storytelling provide the context.
Watkins’ comment should not be mistaken for confirmation that Batman appears in the movie. It instead establishes atmosphere. The setting is meant to feel like a place where Batman could be around the next corner, a useful tension for a story about a villain traditionally connected to him.
That approach may also give Clayface space to make Hagen the focus rather than treating the film as an extended introduction to someone else. A live-action Gotham can be explored through the perspective of a character shaped by a personal catastrophe, while Batman remains a looming cultural and geographic presence. In practical narrative terms, the city supplies the shadow; Clayface supplies the immediate conflict.
Where Batman currently stands in the DCU
Batman has been acknowledged around the edges of the DCU rather than formally introduced in live action. He appeared in animated form in Creature Commandos. Elsewhere, Lanterns established that Kerry is from Gotham, and Hal Jordan referenced Batman while speaking with Guy Gardner.
Those details establish that Batman exists in the shared universe. What remains unknown is who will play him in the ongoing plans overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and when the character will arrive in live action. There is no casting answer in the currently available information, and no reason to infer one from Clayface’s proximity to Gotham.
That unresolved status makes Harries’ comments more fun than definitive. Clayface is talking big before the person he is targeting has fully stepped into this version of the universe. The boast fits the character’s scale, but it also underscores the unusual position of the film: it can draw from Batman-related mythology while letting its title villain set the terms of the conversation.
For viewers keeping track of comic-book projects that migrate between mediums, the DCU’s incremental world-building is part of a wider adaptation landscape; another game-world-to-film project is also in development, as covered in the news of a planned Cyberpunk 2077 film. The comparison ends there, however: the available details for Clayface are firmly about Matt Hagen’s origin, his transformation and Gotham’s atmosphere—not a larger crossover plot.
What is confirmed about Clayface
- Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, the character who becomes Clayface.
- Hagen is an actor who turns to extreme treatment after being disfigured.
- The treatment changes him into a shapeshifting clay monster.
- Harries believes Clayface’s ability to become anyone or anything gives him a major edge against Batman.
- James Watkins wants Gotham to feel as though Batman could be close, even without confirming his appearance.
- Batman exists in the DCU but has not yet debuted in live action.
- Clayface is scheduled to reach theaters on October 23.
The strongest takeaway is not that a Batman fight has been promised. It is that the film is presenting Clayface as a major force in his own right: a character whose origin combines physical transformation with questions of identity, control and ambition. Batman’s shadow will be part of Gotham. Clayface, meanwhile, may be the one deciding what shape that shadow takes.
