Clayface Ends With No Batman and No Post-Credits Scene
The DCU's Clayface film concludes with Matt Hagen's monstrous transformation and a haunting final twist, while Batman remains absent from the story. Director James Watkins explains that Gotham's Dark Knight exists but the film focuses solely on Hagen's tragedy.
The new DCU film Clayface ends without a post-credits scene and without a live-action appearance from Batman, despite the Caped Crusader's presence in the wider universe. The movie, which marks the live-action debut of the classic Batman villain, instead closes on a tragic and unsettling note for its protagonist, former actor Matt Hagen.
After exacting revenge on the mobsters who disfigured him, the money manager who stole his fortune, and the best friend who betrayed him, Hagen turns his attention to Dr. Caitlyn Corr, the scientist whose experimental nanobot treatment restored his face but also gave him his shape-shifting affliction. Caitlyn, engaged to Gotham Police detective John Borrelli, developed feelings for Hagen during his treatment but ultimately chose not to betray her fiancé. When she returns home to confess the truth about Hagen's condition and his involvement in the killings, she discovers Borrelli's corpse in the next room. Hagen, impersonating the detective, suggests he could stay in that form forever if she wants to be with him.
Caitlyn grabs Borrelli's taser and zaps Hagen, sending him crashing through a window. As electricity surges through his nanobot-infested body, she retrieves a tablet to initiate the destruct sequence for the nanobots, which would kill him. Outside, Hagen transforms into the giant, comics-accurate Clayface form, briefly regaining enough humanity to beg for death. Caitlyn activates the sequence and watches him melt into puddles that drain into the sewer.
Later, Caitlyn shares all her materials with the police and walks home, unnerved by strangers' faces and haunted by Hagen's ability to become anyone. She buys a newspaper reporting Hagen's downfall and death. A homeless man asks her for money and performs a familiar actorly bow that Caitlyn recognizes as Hagen's gesture. The film then follows the man to his dwelling, where he is revealed to be Hagen. Caitlyn appears behind him, holding the newspaper, and tells him his reviews were rave notices. Hagen has created both her form and his own from a pool of clay, and he cries out in anguish as his romantic fantasy recedes into his monstrous true form.
Batman is never mentioned in the film, though a scene is set at the Wayne Community Centre. Director James Watkins explained that Batman exists in this world but the story belongs to Hagen. «It's just like in Joker,» Watkins said. «It's a city of several million people, and we're telling one person's story within it.» The DCU's Batman previously appeared in silhouette in an animated cameo in Creature Commandos, and Hagen also debuted in animated form in that series, voiced by Alan Tudyk. DC Studios co-boss James Gunn confirmed that the animated Batman is the DCU's Batman and that Hagen survived the events of Creature Commandos.
The timeline places both Clayface and Creature Commandos before the events of Superman, which is set in 2025. The DCU's Batman may not appear in live action until Batman: The Brave and the Bold reaches screens. For now, Clayface stands as a self-contained tragedy about a man whose pursuit of restoration leads to his complete undoing.
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