Since Warner Bros. and DC Studios greenlit Clayface, the name most heavily associated with the project has been writer Mike Flanagan. Yet in a recent interview, the filmmaker who originally pitched and wrote the DCU’s first horror movie stressed that his involvement ended much earlier than some fans might expect.
Speaking with ComicBookMovie.com’s Matthew Wilding, Flanagan explained that the Batman villain appealed to him because the character offered relatively unexplored territory on the big screen.
Clayface in Batman The animated Series – YouTube, DC Kids
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“Clayface had never been adapted before outside of the animated series, and in a lot of the animated work, but had never made it into a feature film and certainly never as the central character,” Flanagan explained. “And so Clayface for me felt kind of wide open. It was we we were we were the first to kind of get in and do that.”
Deadline previously reported that Flanagan pitched the idea to DC Studios and was subsequently given the green light to write the screenplay.
Apparently, that was largely the extent of his involvement.
Flanagan Says Clayface Belongs to James Watkins
Flanagan made it clear during the interview that Clayface should not be considered his movie.
“Now that said, Clayface, you know, very much is not mine. It’s James Watkins movie,” the writer said, with no apparent animosity. “I wrote a script I loved and I turned it in and then that’s the last—I haven’t even seen it.”
“I’m excited to see it and see what James did with it. But that’s James’ film and I’m so excited to see what he made.”
Mike Flanagan – IMDb, YouTube
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Watkins is best known for directing 2024’s Speak No Evil, the American remake of the 2022 Danish horror film of the same name.
Flanagan’s comments also make an important distinction about the finished product. Although Clayface began with his pitch and screenplay, he apparently had no involvement in shaping the movie once that script was turned over.
Whatever ultimately reaches theaters will therefore be Watkins’ interpretation of the material rather than a Mike Flanagan film in the traditional sense.
Clayface Will Introduce a Batman Villain to the DCU
According to the official synopsis, “Clayface unravels one man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster in a story that explores the loss of one’s identity and humanity, corrosive love, and the dark underbelly of scientific ambition.”
DC Studios co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran reportedly approved the script in part following the success of the DC Elseworlds series The Penguin, a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Reeves’ production company also helped develop Clayface, and the filmmaker serves as one of its producers.
However, Gunn has made it clear that Clayface is not part of Reeves’ separate Batman universe. Instead, it takes place within the mainline DCU.
Robert Pattinson in The Batman: Part II test footage – ONE Media, YouTube
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“Clayface is totally DCU,” Gunn said during a 2025 presentation.
“The only thing that’s in Matt’s world, his Crime Saga that he’s telling, is the Batman Trilogy, the Penguin series, that’s in that lane,” Safran added. “So still under DC Studios, still under us. We have an incredible relationship with Matt, but those are the only things.
“It was important that Clayface be part of the DCU. It’s an origin story for a classic Batman villain that we want to have in our world.”
That decision has generated criticism from some fans, particularly because DC Studios is moving forward with a solo movie centered on a Batman villain before revealing the DCU’s version of the Dark Knight himself.
Flanagan Will Be Watching Along With Everyone Else
That makes Flanagan’s latest comments especially interesting. Despite originating the project and writing the screenplay that convinced DC Studios to move forward, he apparently has little more knowledge of the finished Clayface than audiences waiting to see it.
The movie may have started with Flanagan’s pitch, but he is going out of his way to give Watkins ownership of what ultimately reaches the screen.
Image from the Clayface trailer – Warner Bros., YouTube
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Meanwhile, Clayface remains an unusual early piece of Gunn and Safran’s DCU: an R-rated horror-driven origin story for a Batman villain entering a shared universe that has yet to introduce its Batman.
Whether Watkins preserved Flanagan’s original vision or transformed it into something substantially different is something even the film’s original writer is apparently waiting to discover.
Why do you think that Mike Flanagan is now saying that Clayface isn’t his project? Sound off and let us know!
