Promos for the DCU's Clayface film have revealed the closest thing audiences will get to his final form before the movie hits theaters on October 23. Clayface's marketing campaign hasn't been the strongest, but weeks before the movie arrives, DC is pulling out all the stops to build hype. Directed by James Watkins from a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, the film is the DCU's first outright horror story. The movie follows Tom Rhys Harries' Matt Hagen, a rising actor whose life takes a turn for the worse after a Gotham City gangster disfigures his face. The experimental medical procedure he undergoes to fix it goes horribly wrong.
DC Studios unveiled a new poster for Clayface alongside a wave of theatrical merch, giving a clearer picture of what Clayface's monstrous final form will look like in live-action. The poster leans heavily into the movie's body horror premise. It places Hagen's saggy face against a dark, murky backdrop of billowing red fog, while a swirling tower of his other faces and grasping hands melts away in terror. Combined, these faces form a massive mound of clay, indicating that Hagen's final form will be as grotesque as director James Watkins can make it.
The film's new theater merch, specifically the popcorn tie-ins, took a similar approach, making Hagen look just as repulsive, if not more so.
A popcorn bucket from a local theater that surfaced online shows a massive clay hand bursting over the rim, as if the creature were climbing out of the container itself, with the Clayface logo stamped across a body that drips and sags like wet mud.
The drink cup that comes with the bucket sports a sculpted, warped clay face, complete with one bulging, bloodshot eye, drooping features, and a mouth twisted open mid-scream. This design bears numerous similarities to Clayface's final form in Creature Commandos.
These designs also feel anything but abstract, symbolizing the kinds of forms Matt Hagen takes when he loses control. The film's trailers have shown glimpses of Clayface's transformation, but these promo designs take things a step further, the nearest thing yet to a live-action look at his final form before release. This is great marketing, as it teases Hagen's final look in the best way possible without giving the full thing away.
Watkins has already said there's no intention to show Clayface's final form in the marketing, so all we're going to get until October 23 are teases that make your skin crawl while leaving you wanting more.
The film's lead, Tom Rhys Harries, also added to the hype when he teased Clayface's full form to Empire magazine, describing it as "fucking sick!" He also told Entertainment Weekly that "it's been a year since I saw that thing being built out. I can't wait for people to see it."
What Will Clayface's Final Design Actually Look Like?
The film won't actually be the titular villain's DCU debut. He made his first appearance in the DCU's first release, Creature Commandos, which premiered on HBO Max in December 2024. In that show, Clayface's final form was on full display. Since Peter Safran has confirmed that the film's Matt Hagen is the very same Clayface, that form will likely carry over.
That said, some creative changes are always possible, since live-action and animation take different approaches to character design, though any tweaks will likely be minor.
Creatures like Clayface look far more intimidating in live-action than in animation anyway, so although Creature Commandos essentially functions as a spoiler for his final look, the grotesque reality of a clay monster in live-action will still surprise audiences.
Going by what Creature Commandos showed, Clayface will appear as a massive lump of dripping mud that shifts into different shapes. The trailers have already shown some of the wild shapes Clayface takes, with one silhouette shot showing his hand morphed into a large mace, ready to strike.
Creature Commandos shows what the villain became years down the line, while Clayface is the origin story of how he got there. The animated version of the villain proved brutally violent in his full clay form, nearly killing Rick Flag Sr. during their battle in the home of Dr. Aisla MacPherson, the lecturer Clayface was impersonating.
The trailers have shown that the same level of violence will translate to his origin film, even before he takes his final form. It only gets more brutal once he does, with one trailer shot showing his silhouette attacking Caitlyn Corr, the scientist whose experimental procedure turned him into a monster.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
