Kristian Harloff Says Clayface Trailer Looks More Like Matt Reeves' Batman World Than the Comic Booky DCU

The Clayface trailer is here, and it looks like one of the more highly anticipated entries in the DC Universe slate. This is one of the smaller movies that were announced alongside the big blockbusters like Superman and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the kind of project that is almost supposed to play like an A24 movie rather than a huge tentpole. There was a teaser before this, but now there is a fuller look at the story. Since Clayface is a Batman villain, it is unclear whether Batman himself will actually show up in this one. As I put it, "maybe he will, maybe he won't, maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't."

Clayface Trailer Follows Matt Hagen's Transformation From Victim to Villain

The trailer centers on a character named Hagen, who says plainly, "I want my life back." He appears to have once been a good looking, famous actor, and other characters call it "a tragedy what they did to him." He then volunteers for human trials tied to what is described as cosmetic surgery, telling those around him "even if it kills me, I'll be better off than I am now." One line in the footage compares the process directly to a sun god, with a character saying, "it's some kind of sun god, we're in unknown territory."

The transformation sequences themselves have a body horror quality that reminded me of The Substance, and Hagen's arc immediately brought Darkman to mind, to the point that I said out loud, "he's like Darkman." After the procedure, people around him initially react well, telling him he looks good, even great, though one warns him, "I have no idea what side effects you'll have." That warning is clearly meant to set up where his story is headed.

From there, Hagen's motivation turns toward revenge. He says the people he trusted betrayed him and that "the justice system failed me, they stole my career, my money, my life." That framing pushes him toward what I described as a Darkseid style path, channeling his anger into destruction rather than anything heroic. Importantly, the trailer does not give away too much of the actual plot beyond that setup, which I think is a good thing.

Clayface Draws Comparisons to The Substance, Darkman, and The Crow

Beyond the specific visual echoes of The Substance and Darkman, the overall shape of the story also reminded me of The Crow, though told from the perspective of the villain rather than the hero. It is a reverse origin story in that sense: a man who has his whole life taken from him, who might not even be a villain at the start, but who chooses to use his new powers for anger and destruction instead of anything good.

What I am curious about is that the people Hagen appears to be going after in the trailer seem to be genuinely bad people, which means audiences will probably be rooting for him for a good stretch of the story, wanting to see him take down the people who wronged him. The open question is how the unknown side effects mentioned in the trailer eventually push him past that point and into full villainy.

Clayface Looks More Like Matt Reeves' Batman World Than the Lighter DCU

Even though this is technically part of the DC Universe, the way this trailer is shot feels more connected to Matt Reeves' Batman world, the tone used in The Batman and the Penguin series, than to a lighter, more comic booky version of the DCU. I said you could easily picture the Penguin showing up in this and having a conversation with Hagen. Whether that connection holds or whether things shift depending on how this movie performs is something I am not sure about.

I am not familiar enough with the lead actor to speak to the performance yet, but Darkman remains a personal favorite because of Sam Raimi's direction and Liam Neeson's performance, which had a very different tone than what this trailer is showing. That makes me curious how this version will be handled, and I said I am excited that the DCU is shifting strategy by making a movie like this in the first place, and that I would like to see how Batman himself eventually fits into this corner of the universe.

What did you make of this trailer, and do you think this story fits better in a grounded Matt Reeves style world than in the wider DC Universe?