Clayface Trailer Explained: The Fly, The Substance and Feat of Clay

Clayface is the first R-rated movie in James Gunn's DC Universe, directed by James Watkins, with Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen. It's in theaters October 23, 2026. A lot of people watched this trailer and asked where the monster is. I think it's hidden on purpose. This is a story about a face. Matt Hagen loses his, gets it back, and then finds out he can wear anyone's. So I went through both trailers and the teaser shot by shot. There's a magazine calling Hagen Coast City's new leading man, a ferry leaving the Narrows, a line taken word for word from Cronenberg's The Fly, and a lab injector that feels a lot like The Substance. I also put it next to Feat of Clay from Batman: The Animated Series and the Clayface comics from 1940 and 1961, and go through the airplane bathroom scene and that ending with Eddie Marsan. Sources: the Warner Bros. trailers and teaser, the Entertainment Weekly trailer breakdown with James Watkins and Tom Rhys Harries, Empire, Deadline, Detective Comics #40 and #298, and Batman: The Animated Series. Whose face do you think Hagen takes first?