Clayface Director Reveals Why Movie Didn’t Use The Original Villain

Clayface’s director revealed why he didn’t go with the original iteration of the character.

James Watkins has explained why the new DC Studios movie focuses on Matt Hagen rather than Basil Karlo, the original version of the iconic Batman villain. Although several characters have gotten stuck with the Clayface mantle throughout DC Comics history, the director has revealed why Hagen was ultimately considered the better choice for the new adaptation.

In an interview with Variety, Watkins explained that he did explore other iterations of the character from the comic books, including Karlo. However, he and the writer of Clayface, Mike Flanagan, ultimately decided that Hagen was the best choice for the new film, choosing him over the original for one main reason.

According to Watkins, Karlo’s traits didn’t fit the story that he wanted to tell. The original character was more traditional and represented classic Hollywood. While those elements remain important to the villain’s history, the director believed they would have been more difficult to incorporate into a story that is set in modern times.

Hagen was more flexible as a character, and his circumstances could translate more naturally into a contemporary setting. Watkins also explained that while the film chose Hagen, it still incorporates elements from different versions of Clayface instead of exclusively adapting one comic book iteration. The clearest example is that, in the comic books, Hagen was not an actor, so the new DC movie actually adapted Batman: The Animated Series’ iteration of the character.

It was really landed by Mike Flanagan and the script. I read all of them, Basil Karlo and all, afterward because there are bits and bobs that are kind of cherry-picked from all over the place. But the key journey, and that’s what Mike had chosen, was the Matt Hagen version. If you’d have gone with Basil Karlo, it’s a little bit too gothic or too hard to do in such a modern idiom. The Matt Hagen is a more relatable version. Whether it’s Basil Karlo and Boris Karloff, there are all those characters that it’s referring back to in the Golden Age of Hollywood, that sort of thing. This is something that can sit in our contemporary time. Our Gotham is not entirely contemporary. It slightly steals from a few different genres. We wanted it to be slightly timeless, but it can play as contemporary.

The very first Clayface, Karlo, was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. He originally appeared in Detective Comics #40 in 1940. Karlo was introduced as a former horror movie star who becomes furious and loses his grip on reality after learning that one of his most famous films, The Dread Castle, was being remade without him.

Unlike later versions of Clayface, he initially has no supernatural abilities. Instead of going on a superpowered tirade, he took on the identity of a villain he had previously played. The character went on a killing spree wearing a clay mask while targeting the remake’s cast and crew.

Hagen was created decades later. Created by Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, he made his debut during the Silver Age of comics in 1961’s Detective Comics #298. Unlike Karlo, Hagen had the ability to transform his physical appearance, gaining powers that would become synonymous with the supervillain.

HaHagen’s original comic book origin was drastically different from the version depicted in Clayface. He was a professional deep-sea diver who was hunting for treasure. During his expedition, he discovered a mysterious underwater cave. Inside, he finds a pool containing a radioactive substance that transformed his body after he accidentally touched it. He got the ability to shapeshift, allowing him to impersonate other people and turn parts of his body into weapons.

Clayface is currently playing in theaters.