It was recently announced that Batman villain Clayface will star in his own solo movie written by famed horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan. With a release date of Sept. 2026, there's a lot that can be discussed surrounding this film, and to me, the main two are this: Which version of Clayface are we going to get in the film, and what could the overall story be? The answer to one of those questions could very well influence the other.
Clayface is one of Batman's oldest villains, appearing in the Golden Age of comics, and there have been many versions of the supervillain since his DC Comics debut. With that in mind, let's break down the most prominent versions of the character and discuss what it could be like if they appeared in the upcoming DC Universe movie.
1. Basil Karlo
Beginning with the one that started it all, Basil Karlo was the original Clayface who made his first appearance in Detective Comics No. 40 in 1940. He was once a movie actor who fell from grace, and when he heard that a remake of the movie that made him famous was coming out, he sought revenge against everyone involved in the film's production. Once the murders began on set, the Dynamic Duo intervened to investigate who the killer might be. After a thorough investigation, Batman and Robin discover Karlo to be the culprit and defeat him soon after.
Unlike the future versions of the character, Karlo didn't possess superpowers of any kind, at first. When he first appeared, he was just a man with an insatiable desire for vengeance against those who he thinks wronged him. However, the Basil Karlo version of Clayface would return decades later in a story titled The Mud Pack, which ran from Detective Comics No. 604-607 in 1989. In this story, Karlo unites all the versions of Clayface that existed at that point in time to come together to take on and defeat Batman once and for all.
His true main goal, however, was to gain the shapeshifting powers of all the Clayfaces so that he could become the ultimate Clayface and kill Batman. That plan was foiled when Looker, a super-powered ally of Batman, overloaded the powers within Karlo which resulted in him melting into nothingness, seemingly defeated.
Over the decades, the Basil Karlo Clayface would get his origins reworked which resulted in him obtaining the shape-changing powers and mud-like appearance of the other Clayfaces - both in the mainstream comics and various adaptions of the character, in particular in the video game Batman: Arkham City (where he was the final boss), and in the animated comedy series Harley Quinn. I'd wager that most people are more familiar with this version of Clayface than any other, or at least a version of his story, and any version of Basil Karlo would make a compelling take for the DCU movie.
2. Matt Hagen
The second Clayface, Matt Hagen, first appeared in Detective Comics No. 298 in 1961, over two decades after Karlo made his debut. This is the first version of Clayface which has recognizable powers and appearance when it comes to how audiences view the character in modern times.
Matt Hagen was a treasure hunter who, one day, while scuba diving found a mysterious cave deep with an illuminated pool of unknown material. Hagen risks his life to uncover the mysteries of the pool, which is actually filled with an unknown chemical, and the resulting dip changes Hagen into a shapeshifting mass of mud. With his newfound abilities, Hagen set out to steal the treasures he desired and turned to crime in Gotham City. There's a caveat with this new power though; if Hagen doesn't return to the pool in the cave every so often, the powers vanish, which, to put a long story short, is how Batman defeated him: By capturing him before he made it back to the pool.
The Matt Hagen Clayface has an interesting history both in the comics and in various adaptions. In the comics, during the Mud Pack storyline, Hagen isn't even conscious throughout the whole story, he is merely used as a tool in Basil Karlo's plan to gain the shape-shifting powers of the other Clayfaces, and soon after this story, he was killed off and hasn't resurfaced in the comics since.
There was a version of this Clayface that made an appearance in the opening credits to the 1960s' Adam West Batman show, but the character never made it into any of the episodes (probably due to budget restrictions or the lack of convincing special effects at the time). A different version of Hagen would appear in the iconic '90s Batman: The Animated Series, but his origins were more aligned with that of the Basil Karlo version, with him being a failing movie star with the addition of the superpowers. There have probably been other versions of Hagen's Clayface, but most of the time it's Basil Karlo who's the Clayface in the majority of adaptations.
Out of the versions of Clayface on this list, Matt Hagen is the least interesting or even well-loved by fans, since other versions of the character have become the main version, but I think this version has the most potential when it comes to being adapted. Hagen's debut origins are very campy, but I think Flanagan, if he chose this version, could expand upon Hagen's Silver Age origins and make it more suitable and enticing for modern audiences.
3. Preston Payne
Coming in at number three is Preston Payne, who had a cameo appearance in Detective Comics number 477 and made his full appearance in the following issue all in 1978. The Preston Payne version of Clayface and the proceeding versions become more and more obscure, but that doesn't mean their stories are any less interesting or iconic than the previous versions, at least in my eyes.
Preston Payne was a renowned scientist who was born an acromegalic, a condition that affected and distorted his body. Because of this condition, Payne was bullied, and through that abuse, he vowed to correct the mistake that was his deformed body.
After graduating from college, he went to work at S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham, which was when during this time he sought the aid of world-renowned surgeons who all told him that his desires for "normalcy" were not possible. Racked with desperation, Payne then investigated the villain Clayface (the Matt Hagen version), who was able to change his appearance at will. After managing to get a sample of Hagen's blood, he experimented with it to make it more potent, and after injecting it into himself, he was able to manifest more attractive features to his whole body, making the experiment a success. However, his victory would turn to bitter defeat when while on a date his body contorted into a mass of clay.
Stricken with fear, Payne's date tried to flee from the terror, only to meet her end at the hands of Payne, who quickly discovered that anyone he touched would melt into a pile of mud. Racing home, Payne built himself an advanced exoskeleton that kept his body contained, only to learn to his dismay that if he didn't touch someone or something soon, he would end up like the people he melted into nothing. Payne began to kill derelicts because he had no desire to kill any innocent people but in the end had no choice if he wanted to survive, which caught the attention of Batman.
Payne's goal was to find a cure for his condition by stealing parts from S.T.A.R. Labs until Batman caught up with him and a fight ensued. During the struggle, a fire began to spread throughout Payne's hideout, and Payne managed to escape. Not long after, Payne was found in a department store where he was finally captured and sent to Arkham.
Out of these three versions of Clayface, Preston Payne is my favorite mainly because he was an innocent man who through a cruel twist of fate made himself into a monster. The trauma he experienced as Clayface made him mentally deranged and unstable, and he found some solace in the form of a mannequin that he named Helena, which he thought was alive. During the Mud Pack storyline, Payne is tricked into following the lead of Basil Karlo, where he is ultimately betrayed by Karlo and finds real love in the form of Sondra Fuller, the fourth Clayface, which unfortunately ends in tragedy as well. Preston Payne's life can be called nothing but a tragedy, and I think his version would fit perfectly in the upcoming film, mainly because as reported in an article from Variety, Flanagan wanted to do a Clayface movie that's a "horror/thriller/tragedy", which describes Payne's story the best.
For those of you who want to read up on Preston Payne, I'd recommend his debut issues but I'd also recommend Batman Annual No. 11, a comic with various stories one of them about Payne's Clayface which was written by the comics legend Alan Moore, so you know it's a real deal story.
4. Clayface has already appeared in Gunn's DCU
The Clayface character has already made his debut in James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe in the fifth episode of animated series Creature Commandos on Max, titled "The Iron Pot". This Clayface was shown to be a gun for hire, so to speak, as he impersonated a person of interest for Rick Flag Sr. and the Creature Commandos. With Eric Frankenstein begrudgingly at his side, he and Flag fight Clayface, with Flag nearly dying in the scuffle and Clayface seemingly killed off by Frankenstein after making his debut.
However, according to Gunn himself in a post on social media platform BlueSky: "The reports of Clayface's death have been greatly exaggerated. He is quite mushy though." So, this Clayface is very much alive, but what does it mean for his solo movie?
Flanagan's Clayface movie has a lot of potential and mystery surrounding it, but it's sure going to be an interesting movie when it comes out in 2026. I think out of the three versions I discussed, Hagen and Payne have the most potential. For the former, a lot can be done to revamp the character's corny origins, and for the latter, there haven't been any adaptions of Payne and it would be cool to see his story play out on screen. That said, I'd be more than happy with Karlo or any other version of Clayface star in the movie.