Updated Sep 28, 2026: added the final trailer, the reported 108-minute runtime, the Oct 21 international date and the latest on tickets and IMAX. Reviews aren’t out yet; we’ll add them when the embargo lifts.
The Clayface movie hits US theaters on Friday, Oct 23, 2026, and it’s rated R. Warner Bros. bumped it from Sep 11 back in February, which landed it the week before Halloween. James Watkins (Speak No Evil) directs from a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, and Tom Rhys Harries plays the title role. It’s the DCU’s third movie, its first R-rated one and its first straight-up horror film. And after Supergirl‘s rough summer, it’s carrying a lot more weight than a roughly $40 million monster movie normally would.
Clayface movie release date, tickets and where to watch
- Release date: Oct 23, 2026 in North America, and Oct 21 internationally, per the official site.
- Format: Theaters only. The official site doesn’t list IMAX, and Warner Bros. quietly cut the IMAX line from its press notes in June. No IMAX run has been announced as of Sep 28, 2026.
- Rating: R for “strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity and brief drug use,” per the MPA rating reported Sep 16.
- Runtime: 108 minutes, according to a Czech distributor’s listing spotted by The Direct. Warner Bros. hasn’t confirmed it itself yet. If it holds, it’d be the first DC movie under two hours since 2020’s Birds of Prey.
- Tickets: Not on sale in the US as of Sep 28, 2026. Fandango only offers a “notify me” alert. Japan started presales on Sep 18, with a reprint of Clayface’s 1961 debut comic as a bonus.
- Streaming: Not announced. It’ll almost certainly go to HBO Max like every DC Studios film. Supergirl took about 11 weeks, opening Jun 26 and hitting HBO Max Sep 10. The same gap would put Clayface on HBO Max in early January. That’s our guess, not a date.
Trailers
DC has put out a teaser in April, a full trailer in July and a final trailer last week. Here’s the official trailer from DC’s channel:
And the April teaser, if you want to see how it started:
Cast and crew
| Who | Role |
|---|---|
| Tom Rhys Harries | Matt Hagen / Clayface (Deadline) |
| Naomi Ackie | Caitlyn Corr, the scientist behind Hagen’s treatment (Rotten Tomatoes) |
| Max Minghella | John Borrelli (Bleeding Cool) |
| Eddie Marsan | Not announced |
| David Dencik | Not announced |
| Nancy Carroll, Joshua James | Not announced (official site) |
Behind the camera, Watkins directs and the script is credited to Flanagan and Amini. Flanagan wrote the first draft, and Amini (Drive) did the rewrite. James Gunn and Peter Safran produce alongside Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris, the duo behind The Batman and The Penguin. Rob Hardy (Ex Machina) shoots it and Volker Bertelmann scores it, per the official credits.
What is Clayface about?
The official synopsis keeps it tight. Matt Hagen goes from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man. Then a local crime boss leaves him disfigured. An experimental treatment gives him his face back, but it also loosens his grip on reality, and things spiral into revenge. The shape-shifting is the horror. Losing track of who he is is the tragedy.
Quick primer if you only know the name. DC Comics has had several Clayfaces. The first, Basil Karlo, was a washed-up horror actor who debuted in 1940. Matt Hagen, the one this movie uses, showed up in 1961 as the first with actual shape-shifting clay powers. Most people know him from Batman: The Animated Series‘ two-parter “Feat of Clay,” which is still the blueprint: a vain actor loses his face, then loses himself. The movie is clearly working from that version, with a lot more body horror on top.
Where Clayface fits in the DCU
Earlier than you’d think. Gunn said on Threads that Clayface is set before Superman, calling it “the first DCU film out of chronological order.” He also said it’s “very connected,” but that the standalone story comes first. Translation: you don’t need homework. Our DCU timeline guide shows where it lands next to everything else.
Don’t expect Batman. He isn’t in the cast list, and the DCU’s Batman is being saved for The Brave and the Bold.
Why DC went R-rated horror
Two reasons. One of them is money.
The budget. Clayface cost somewhere in the mid-$40 million range, per The Hollywood Reporter. That’s pocket change for a comic-book movie, and it changes what counts as a win. Compare Supergirl: it opened to about $37 million domestic and finished around $126 million worldwide on a reported $170 million budget. Safran admitted it “didn’t meet our box office expectations.” A horror movie at a quarter of that cost can turn a profit on numbers that would sink a tentpole.
The genre. Horror is one of the most reliable bets in theaters, and October is its home turf. The date change was officially about making room for the Practical Magic sequel in September, per TheWrap, but Clayface honestly came out ahead: it now opens right as everyone’s looking for something scary. The team fits too. Watkins made Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, and Flanagan built his name on The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass. This is a horror crew first and a comic-book crew second.
Our take
Clayface matters more to the DCU than its size suggests. Gunn’s first two movies were big, PG-13 and tied into the wider universe, and one of them underperformed. This is the first real test of a different model: a cheap, standalone, R-rated genre movie that uses a DC character as a hook, not a homework assignment. Joker showed in 2019 how far that can go. If Clayface works even at a fraction of that, expect DC Studios to make more of these. If it doesn’t, the pressure on Man of Tomorrow, out Jul 9, 2027, gets a lot heavier.
We’re cautiously optimistic. The trailers sell an actual horror movie, not a superhero movie with a scary filter. Harries has the hardest job here: making a guy melting into sludge feel sad instead of silly. That’s the thing to watch.
Let’s be real: the Clayface rollout is weirdly quiet
We like the pitch. The rollout? Less so.
- No tickets, 25 days out. As of Sep 28, you still can’t buy a US ticket. Japan’s had presales since Sep 18. Fans have noticed, and ComingSoon rounded up the “tickets when?” frustration last week. For a movie that needs a strong opening weekend, that’s a weird way to build buzz.
- The IMAX downgrade. Warner’s earlier press notes promised theaters “and IMAX.” The June version just dropped the IMAX part, with no announcement. Maybe it’s a screen-count thing. Still, when your gimmick is practical gore, losing the biggest screens doesn’t read as confidence.
- Soft tracking. World of Reel reports tracking in the low-to-mid $20 million range for opening weekend. That’s fine against a $40 million-ish budget, but it’s not the kind of number that silences the “is the DCU in trouble?” crowd.
- Mood over story. Three trailers in and it’s still mostly vibes and gross-out moments. The same World of Reel piece says it’s still unclear whether there’s any depth under the gore, and we get it. We know Matt Hagen melts. We don’t know much about who Caitlyn Corr is or what the revenge plot actually looks like.
To be fair, keeping plot details quiet is a legit horror strategy, and the runtime being unconfirmed by Warner isn’t a crime. But this is DC Studios’ cheapest and riskiest bet so far, and right now the marketing is playing it way too safe.
Early reactions
Not yet. As of Sep 28, 2026, Warner Bros. hasn’t announced a review embargo date, and Rotten Tomatoes shows no reviews. Some test-screening chatter has floated around online, but none of it is verified, so we’re not treating it as reactions. We’ll add named critics and the Tomatometer here once the embargo lifts.
What’s next
Our spoiler-free Clayface review goes up at release. Want more scares for Halloween week? Our best horror movies of 2026 ranking is a solid place to start. On the TV side, Lanterns season 1 wraps Oct 4 on HBO (here’s our Lanterns review), and the next big DCU swing on the big screen is Man of Tomorrow next July.
So what’s your call: is a $40 million R-rated horror movie the right move for the DCU, or should DC just go big again? Tell us in the comments.
