Sick and tired of seeing The Joker on screen? Tired of Two-Face? Well, get ready because the hottest Batman villain is Clayface… And with today’s episode of Creature Commandos, we’ve now finally met the DCU’s version of Clayface. Or have we? Because there’s at least one more iteration of the villain coming, thanks to writer Mike Flanagan.
Spoilers for Creature Commandos past this point. In the episode, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) and Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour) are investigating some weirdness around professor MacPherson (Stephanie Beatriz), an expert in Themyscira. They discover she’s dead in her house, and Clayface (Alan Tudyk) is impersonating her/hanging out and playing Mortal Kombat on Xbox.
What follows is a pitched battle that seemingly leaves Rick Flag dead on the floor in Frankenstein’s arms (don’t worry, he’s not dead). It also leaves Clayface blown to smithereens, littered all over MacPherson’s living room (dying room?) after Frankenstein electrocutes the both of them.
It’s a curious introduction for the character who is supposed to debut in live action in 2026 in Clayface, a new movie written — but not directed — by horror impresario Mike Flanagan. Granted, there are a lot of ways Clayface, a character ostensibly made out of living clay, can survive getting electrocuted and blown apart. But how, given the DCU is an interconnected superhero cinematic universe, does this connect to the upcoming movie?
The answer is likely: it doesn’t. Since everything is interconnected and supposed to stand on its own without watching a million other movies and TV shows, it’s entirely likely that the Flanagan flick will have a different iteration of the baddie than we saw on screen this week. And there have been several others on screen already this year. A more noir version of Clayface appeared on the animated Batman: The Caped Crusader on Prime Video, who had face morphing powers but otherwise was a ’50s-style Hollywood villain. And Tudyk has already played Clayface as a more fanciful, very bad actor (who briefly got hired as James Gunn’s chair) on the also animated Harley Quinn. Both of these takes are not in continuity with the DCU, while Creature Commandos is. But I bring them up to note that Clayface, like his body, is malleable.
So, which Clayface will we see in the upcoming movie? Will Tudyk provide the voice once again? Is this someone inspired by Clayface, going on to perpetrate clay-based crimes? Or perhaps the movie is a prequel, showing how he became a clay man (not to be confused with comic book artist Clay Mann).
Whatever happens going forward, it’s a surprising amount of focus on one of Batman’s weirder villains. And if you’re a Clayface fan? What a time to be alive.
Where To Watch Creature Commandos:
Creature Commandos Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first two episodes of Creature Commandos premiere Thursday, December 5 at 3 am ET / Midnight PT on Max. One episode a week premieres after that, leading to the season finale on January 9, 2025.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Creature Commandos, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, December 5, 2024: Creature Commandos, Episode 1: “The Collywobbles”
- Thursday, December 5, 2024: Creature Commandos, Episode 2: “The Tourmaline Necklace”
- Thursday, December 12, 2024:Creature Commandos, Episode 3: “Cheers To The Tin Man”
- Thursday, December 19, 2024:Creature Commandos, Episode 4: “Chasing Squirrels”
- Thursday, December 26, 2024: Creature Commandos, Episode 5: “The Iron Pot”
- Thursday, January 2, 2025: Creature Commandos, Episode 6: “Priyatel Skelet”
- Thursday, January 9, 2025: Creature Commandos, Episode 7: “A Very Funny Monster”
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