The official Clayface trailer revealed an important Zatanna Easter egg that could hint at her bright future in the DCU. While Clayface is a standalone DC Studios movie, there are still confirmed references to the larger Batman mythos and the DC Universe, including ties to the Joker, Dick Grayson, and the Penguin. As marketing continues for the second 2026 DCU movie, Clayface maintains its deliberate ties to the broader world James Gunn and Peter Safran are building, with a major reference to a prominent member of the Justice League.
At the 1:52 mark of the official Clayface trailer, the neon sign for Club Vesuvius was prominently featured, and this isn't a random location. Club Vesuvius is an iconic Gotham nightclub with deep comic book history, most notably as a regular performance venue for the DC hero Zatanna.
In the DC lore, Club Vesuvius is a glamorous hotspot where Zatanna performs her signature stage magic. Aside from its ties to the DC hero, the location also served as a former hideout for the Batman villain Firefly (Garfield Lynns), adding another layer of danger to its shady reputation.
This Easter egg gains extra weight when paired with confirmation that Zatanna's father, Zatara, already existed in the wider DCU, after he was featured in the Justice Society mural in 2025's Superman movie. This means Zatanna is active in the present day and could be somewhere else practicing her magic.
Speaking with IGN in July 2025, DC Studios boss James Gunn confirmed that "two of those characters" in the Justice Society mural will matter in an active script, meaning that Zatara (and eventually, Zatanna) could factor in a future DCU project:
"Listen, fans have done a pretty good job. I think they've found all of the different characters. But yeah, I will just say that in one of our scripts we're working on two of those characters are kind of important."
Zatanna has long been rumored and teased in DCU circles. In February 2026, Emerald Fennell, a writer who wrote a script for a Zatanna movie, revealed that DC canceled development of the film because it was too dark, noting that it was "a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown:"
Emerald Fennell: "I think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time. I just finished 'Promising Young Woman', and there was this huge thing in this world that I'd never operated in. It was a superhero movie, and I was like, 'Okay, how do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?' Which is sort of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
So it's a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, I would say. I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre... It was really dark. I haven't read it for a really long time because I found it really difficult."
Given that DC Studios is now willing to explore mature territory (as evidenced by Clayface), the possibility of seeing a darker Zatanna film is more likely than ever.
Watch the official Clayface trailer below:
Clayface arrives in theaters on October 23.
Clayface’s Zatanna Easter Egg Has a Deeper Meaning
Zatanna's Easter egg tied to Club Vesuvius in Clayface has a deeper meaning because it quietly signals that the new DCU's Gotham is a layered city where street-level horror, organized crime, and the world of magic all coexist.
The Vesuvius sign could be laying the groundwork for a subtle cameo or performance scene of Zatanna in Clayface or even the larger introduction of magic into the DCU. It's worth pointing out, though, that there is no confirmation of whether Zatanna appears in the DC Studios movie.
By including the club, it sends a message that a standalone horror film like Clayface is part of a connected universe, expanding Gotham's texture without pulling focus from the core story centered on Matt Hagen's body horror shenanigans. This is a smart way to honor comic continuity while teasing bigger things to come for the DC reboot.
Seeing the club appear so prominently in Clayface feels like a deliberate tease, acting as a bridge between the film's grounded body-horror tone and the wider mystical side of the DCU.
Still, Club Vesuvius is a strong sign that magic already exists in Gotham, and it's waiting for its cure before its eventual mystical introduction.
