DC isn’t broken. It needs to go back to its roots: dark, gritty and evil
DC isn’t broken. Clayface, a $40-million-ish R-rated horror film about a Batman villain with no Batman in it, opened at No. 1 in America. James Gunn has now said his Batman casting “isn’t very far away.” Put those two facts together and the answer to “what should DC do next?” gets simple: go back to what made it different. Dark, gritty, villain-led stories, made for an audience that has grown up.
How did Clayface do with critics and audiences?
Critics liked it. Audiences loved it. Here’s where Clayface landed after its opening weekend of October 23 to 25, 2026:
- Box office: No. 1 in the US with about $24 million, and about $43 million worldwide (Deadline).
- Budget: reported between $35 million and $44 million, depending on the outlet. Either way, the global opening roughly matched what it cost to make.
- Rotten Tomatoes: 75% from critics when reviews first landed (83 reviews), with a 94% audience score.
- Metacritic: 59, which means mixed to positive.
- CinemaScore: A-, the same grade audiences gave Superman and The Batman.
Read the reviews and you see the same pattern. Critics praised the body horror and Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, the actor who loses his face. The complaints were about craft: uneven tone, a story that loses some grip after a strong start, and scenes that borrow a little too openly from horror classics. Nobody said it felt like every other superhero film. That’s the point.
We covered how it feels to watch in our Clayface review roundup, and the films it borrows from in Clayface’s horror family tree.
What did James Gunn just say about the DCU?
Around the same time, Gunn sat down for a one-off special of the official podcast for The Suicide Squad (2021), meant to settle what from that film counts in his DC Universe. Three things stood out, and we’ve broken each one out in its own piece:
- Batman is coming. Gunn said casting the DCU Batman “isn’t very far away,” and that nobody has the role yet. Full breakdown: DCU Batman casting is close: what James Gunn said.
- There’s no Joker yet. Gunn said the Joker hasn’t been established in the DCU, which is why Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is hard to place. Full breakdown: Harley Quinn, the Joker and the DCU’s death rule.
- Death is final. His rule is “if you die, you die.” No easy resurrections, which suits darker stories very well.
Read those together and you get a universe that is still mostly a blank page in Gotham. That’s exactly why the next choices matter.
Pylcrow’s take: is DC broken?
No. DC has been bruised by a decade of reboots, but its biggest wins all share one thing, and it isn’t a team-up.
Joker (2019) was an R-rated character study with no Batman, and it passed $1 billion worldwide. The Batman (2022) was a slow, wet, grim detective film, and it made about $770 million. Now Clayface, a horror film about a man losing his face, has opened at No. 1 on a fraction of a normal superhero budget. Every time DC lets a story be dark and specific, people show up.
There is a fair counterpoint. Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) was dark too, and audiences walked away. Dark alone isn’t the formula. Dark with a clear point of view is. Joker was about loneliness. The Batman was about grief. Clayface is about identity. The darkness serves a feeling, which is exactly what Pylcrow cares about.
And the audience is ready. People who saw The Dark Knight as teenagers in 2008 are in their 30s and 40s now. They don’t need every villain softened, and they don’t need a joke after every scare. They can take it, and Clayface’s A- CinemaScore says they want it.
Can dark standalone films still live in one universe?
Yes, and Clayface just proved it. It’s set inside Gunn’s DCU, yet you don’t need to have seen anything else to follow it. The shared world sits quietly in the background instead of taking over the story.
That’s the model Pylcrow would back. Call it the Pylcrow Dark Slate, four simple rules:
- Villain first. Build films around the monsters, not the heroes who stop them. Gotham alone has a dozen.
- Rated for the story. If the story needs an R, give it one. Don’t sand it down for a bigger opening.
- Keep budgets small. Around $40 million means one miss doesn’t sink the universe, and one hit pays for the next experiment.
- Connect lightly. A name, a place, a newspaper headline. Let the universe reward fans without forcing homework.
Gunn’s own rules already fit this. A universe where “if you die, you die” is a universe with real stakes, which is what dark stories need. A Joker who doesn’t exist yet is a blank page waiting for the right filmmaker. A Batman who isn’t cast yet can be built for this tone from day one. And a Waller show that “didn’t get to where it wanted to be” could find its shape as a cold political thriller.
Which DC villains should get their own dark film next?
We already made the case for Scarecrow in our Pylcrow Villain-First Test: a fear-gas horror film almost writes itself. Mr. Freeze is next on our list, a tragedy about a man who refuses to let his wife go. After that, a grounded Joker origin in the new DCU, made by a horror or crime director rather than a blockbuster one, would be the boldest move Gunn could make. We scored six more contenders, from Poison Ivy to Prometheus, in which Batman villains could carry a movie without Batman.
Frequently asked questions
Is Clayface part of the DCU?
Yes. Clayface is part of DC Studios’ DC Universe, the same world as Superman (2025) and Peacemaker. It works as a standalone film.
Has the DCU Batman been cast?
No. James Gunn said no one has been cast yet, but that casting “isn’t very far away.”
Is the Joker in the DCU?
Not yet. Gunn said the Joker hasn’t been established in the DCU so far.
Is Clayface a hit?
For its size, yes. It opened at No. 1 in the US with about $24 million and took about $43 million worldwide in its first weekend, roughly its reported budget.
What did critics say about Clayface?
Mostly positive. It debuted at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 59 on Metacritic. Critics praised the body horror and Tom Rhys Harries, and criticised the uneven tone. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.
Is Matt Reeves’ The Batman part of the DCU?
No. Gunn describes it as an Elseworlds story, a separate grounded crime world with no superpowers.
What should you read next?
Start with the rest of this series: what Gunn said about casting Batman and where Harley Quinn and the Joker stand. Then see our Clayface review roundup for which mood it fits. Also read the five horror films that shaped Clayface. More from the TV & Film section is waiting.
Sources: James Gunn on the official The Suicide Squad podcast special, as reported by Gizmodo and Nerdist; box office from Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter; reviews from Forbes and Dark Horizons. Scores are from opening week and may have moved since.
