James Gunn's DC Announces Its 2nd-Ever Antihero Movie

James Gunn's DC Studios has officially announced its second antihero film since the DC Universe kicked off in 2024 with the animated series Creature Commandos. Under Gunn and Peter Safran's leadership as co-CEOs, the studio has brought plenty of morally gray characters to the screen. It wasn't until 2026, though, that two of them got their own movies, with Supergirl arriving in theaters on June 26. The second antihero film is now just around the corner, and its promotional material has leaned heavily into its lead's questionable morals.

DC Studios' second antihero film is officially Clayface, arriving October 23. The confirmation comes as the studio enters a new corporate era, with Warner Bros. Discovery now officially part of David Ellison's Skydance after the merger closed on October 6. The newly combined company wasted no time highlighting DC Studios' theatrical and streaming future on its brand-new website, where it describes Clayface as an antihero film, billing Tom Rhys Harries' Matt Hagen as "the chilling Gotham anti-hero of Clayface."

Clayface has historically been a Batman villain, so fans naturally assumed the movie would be a villain story. Per this new description, though, Hagen won't be an outright antagonist for the majority of the film. That tracks with what Clayface has teased from the jump. The film is an origin story that follows Hagen's transformation into the villain audiences already met in Creature Commandos, which takes place later in the DCU timeline. 

The official synopsis pitches him as a Gotham street kid turned Hollywood leading man whose meteoric rise is cut short when a local crime boss leaves him horribly disfigured, sending him down "a destructive path of all-consuming revenge."

He seeks the help of a scientist named Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who introduces him to an experimental drug that could fix his disfigured face. However, the drug has adverse side effects and turns Hagen's skin into a clay-like form. This story is designed to make audiences sympathize with Hagen rather than hate him. 

Moviegoers will naturally root for him for the majority of the movie given how tragic his story is, a direction that pushes Clayface firmly into antihero territory. He's not a bad guy, but not exactly a good one either. He's simply a man with dreams and aspirations, an everyday person who finds himself in a predicament that would drive anyone to do morally questionable things. 

Supergirl took a similar approach. Kara Zor-El led a difficult life, having lost everyone she loved during Krypton's fall. The difference between the two characters lies in where their arcs end. By the end of Supergirl, Kara makes peace with her past and embraces heroism, while Hagen welcomes darkness. Kara walks the antihero path on her way to becoming a hero; Hagen's antihero journey pays off in him becoming a full-blown villain. 

Antihero stories have become popular in modern comic book movies, and DC Studios intends to spotlight more of them after Clayface. From 2027 onward, numerous DCU films and series will put such characters front and center.

DC Studios Projects Set to Spotlight More Antiheroes

Man of Tomorrow

James Gunn has always loved antiheroes, as his Guardians of the Galaxy movies made evident, and he's bringing a similar vibe to the DCU. He introduced Supergirl as an antihero during the final minutes of Superman. In the sequel, Man of Tomorrow, Gunn plans to turn Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor into one, despite the character being the primary villain of the first film. 

Man of Tomorrow introduces Lars Eidinger's Brainiac as the overarching threat, one so deadly that his presence forces Lex and Superman into an uncomfortable alliance. Gunn described the film as "a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together to a certain degree against a much, much bigger threat."

Lex Luthor has always been one of the most complex characters in Superman lore, and after exploring "a lot about the evil part of Lex" in Superman, Gunn plans to get into "the heart of Lex" in the sequel and present him as a human being.

Other characters who operate in morally gray areas are also set to appear, including Frank Grillo's ruthless ARGUS director, Rick Flag Sr. María Gabriela de Faría also returns as the Engineer. 

In the first movie, she was Lex's enforcer, and now that her boss fights alongside the heroes, she's likely to do the same. In the comics, she's a member of The Authority, one of DC's most notorious antihero teams, so this direction fits her character well. Supergirl will play a part in the ensemble too, embracing heroism after walking her own antihero path.

Creature Commandos

Creature Commandos is returning for a second season after kicking off the DCU with its seven-episode first season, which introduced the antihero group Task Force M. The team, packed with more morally questionable characters than any faction in the DCU, returns in 2027, and according to Gunn, the premiere "won't be long after" Man of Tomorrow arrives.

Season 2 adds even more misfits to the team of weird creatures with traumatic pasts. The new lineup was revealed at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June: King Shark, the same Nanaue audiences met in The Suicide Squad, a gentle 1,000-year-old mummy named Khalis, and the vampire Nosferata join Doctor Phosphorus, Weasel, and a newly rebuilt G.I. Robot, with Indira Varma's Bride now leading the team and David Harbour's Eric Frankenstein still in the picture.

Bane/Deathstroke

DC Studios will take its antihero direction to the next level with the untitled Bane and Deathstroke movie currently in the works. Reports indicate the film has been made a priority and will center on the two notorious rogues from Batman lore.

In a film where there's likely no Caped Crusader, the most obvious direction is to make the titular characters antiheroes rather than outright villains. Plot details for the movie, first revealed in 2024 with Matthew Orton penning the script, remain unknown. 

However, when two villains lead a film, they're typically handed a bigger threat to take on. They act as heroes from the audience's point of view but use morally questionable methods to reach their goals, unlike good guys like Batman and Superman, who abide by a strict code. This movie will likely take that route.

Dynamic Duo

Another Batman-adjacent film is in the works at DC Studios: Dynamic Duo, which lands outside DCU canon under the Elseworlds banner. The movie tells the story of two of Batman's most popular Robin sidekicks, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, and puts a twist on their origin stories by reimagining the pair as childhood friends who eventually take diverging paths. 

Dick joins Batman, while Jason ends up with the Red Hood gang. Jason Todd is one of the most morally gray characters in Batman lore. After the Joker kills him in the "A Death in the Family" comic run, he's resurrected through one of the wildest retcons in DC history, with the original explanation being Superboy-Prime literally punching the walls of reality. 

DC's current canon simplifies it, with Talia al Ghul restoring him via a Lazarus Pit, and after training with the League of Assassins and the All-Caste, he returns to Gotham under a new alias, Red Hood, the Joker's old moniker. As Red Hood, he has largely been a thorn in the side of Batman and the Bat-family, though he fights alongside them on occasion.