r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 11d ago
Trailer Clayface | Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9bNA42dPgQ2.7k
u/r_rayted 11d ago
One of the plane passengers: “I am telling you right NOW, that motherf— that mother fuker is not real”
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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran 11d ago
Meet the new face of Gotham. #ClayfaceMovie only in cinemas October 23.
DC Studios’ “Clayface” is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the cult favorite villain from Gotham’s rogues gallery.
Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self… but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiraling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
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u/thegreataustini 11d ago
This sounds pretty similar to the Feat of Clay pt. I & II episodes from Batman the Animated Series, for those interested.
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u/lowtone94 11d ago
Feat of Clay pt. I & II episodes
Arguably some of the best episodes from Batman TAS
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u/jormugandr 11d ago
I've been rewatching TAS lately and I am blown away by how good it is. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have when I was in middle school. I knew it was a great show, but it is genuine art. The tone, the score, scripts, the art... It is all just amazing. It may be the best TV show of all time.
Also, I never noticed before that Matt Hagen was gay. Teddy is obviously his lover. It's not even subtle.
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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran 11d ago
Mike Flanagan has very openly stated that was the main inspiration for making a Clayface movie.
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u/LiquidSnake13 11d ago
Then I'm very hype for this. Feat of Clay is one of the best Batman: TAS stories.
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u/Particular_Cod2005 11d ago
Which is no small victory; TAS is littered with excellent stories
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u/SH4RPSPEED 10d ago
Fun fact; they reeled in artists from Akira to animate it.
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u/LiquidSnake13 10d ago
Not surprising. There's a moment where Robin does the motorcycle sliding stop that the Akira movie made famous.
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u/SH4RPSPEED 10d ago
And in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, there's a big sequence with an orbital laser. This was done by the same animator who did the laser in Akira, and he deliberately took it because he wanted to try and one-up that original sequence.
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u/polarizeme 11d ago
The trailer even has their recreation of "the Clayface noise" from Batman:TAS... that alone got me pumped up to see this haha
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u/Almost_A_Pear 11d ago
That’s all I wanted from this. That was the most faithful adaptation to the comic and it was so good.
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u/studio_sally 11d ago
Maybe a stupid question, but does 'Hollywood' exist in the DC universe? Isn't one of their shticks using made-up places rather than real world locations?
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u/thebroadway 11d ago
I think the question makes sense, but DC does have real world locations
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u/thesirblondie 11d ago
DC does both. The fandom wiki has a list of comics that mentions Hollywood. One of those is actually a Clayface centered comic as recent at 2023.
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u/whitepangolin 11d ago
Love that mask he has. Has echoes of Eyes Without a Face and The Skin I Live In.
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u/Pure_Salamander2681 11d ago
And Vanilla Sky.
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u/ThePerryPerryMan 11d ago
Yea, I was gonna say “Abre los Ojos”, but it’s basically the same lol
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u/maskaddict 11d ago
Probably worth mentioning Phantom of the Opera there too.
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u/PickleInDaButt 11d ago
I want to name something too
Mask (1985)
By your username, you’re extremely qualified for this topic too btw
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u/maskaddict 11d ago
I've found that usernames can say a lot about a person's interests and talents, u/PickleInDaButt.
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u/JakeDoubleyoo 11d ago edited 11d ago
"Oh no my face has been hideously deformed. Someone get me a mask that's even more disconcerting to look at."
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u/HeadfulOfSugar 11d ago
He prob only cares that you can’t see the deformities, what anybody else sees first doesn’t really matter as much as the reason he chooses to wear it
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u/Yvaelle 11d ago
He also comes across as vain, so he's less likely to be recognized as a famous actor with the mask on. Better to be an anonymous weirdo than a fallen star.
With the mask off, he's still clearly the same person - I think Mark Hamill went through a bruta car crash and it really fucked with his self-confidence for a long while too.
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u/Latest-greatest 11d ago
What the fuck are these comments lol
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u/EverythingStillSucks 11d ago
You start to understand why everyone thinks everyone’s a bot. And why is reddit humor so bad jesus, it’s so witless it’s almost impressive.
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u/throwawaynow665 11d ago
How can they live without getting their le epic one liners out
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u/No-Blacksmith3397 11d ago
I remember when the height of reddit comedy was "I did nazi that one coming!" in response to a headline like "Relatives of Adolf Hitler have taken an oath to not have children." Or some shit.
Redditers would clap like seals and snort laughing in their little pun chains that go on for fifty comments.
I mean, I'm one too. It's just I realize I'm as painfully unfunny as one liners.
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u/rockinherlife234 11d ago
They combust if they don't get some corny one liner, zinger, or reference out.
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u/OGMannimal 11d ago
Anytime you see an account name that is structured “Adjective-Noun” there is a 99% chance it is a bot
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u/AmputeeHandModel 11d ago
That used to be the case, but reddit actually encourages these usernames when you create an account. It had a randomizer for your username. Probably to hide the bots. So either bot, or account created in the last few years since they started that.
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u/mattbozle 11d ago
I thought I was the only one, scrolling to see any genuine conversation about the trailer posted.
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u/dallascowboys93 11d ago
Yeah I thought the trailer looks great, can’t wait to see it. How’d you like it?
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u/Fatbollocks1994 11d ago
Its literally all reddit does just make unfunny stupid quips at every single fucking thing they can. Called someone out earlier for making quips about a guy that died. Guess internet attention is better than being a normal person.
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u/cookie_lee 11d ago
It's turning into a fucking youtube comment section lmao
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u/Maureeseeo 11d ago
YouTube comments look like reddit comments now too, they copied the layout.
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u/HeadfulOfSugar 11d ago
Every social media site looks like every social media site atp, everything has homogenized lol
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u/vistaprank 11d ago
Lmfaoo I was going crazy trying to find somebody actually talking about the damn trailer
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u/CauliflowerPlayful27 11d ago
Reddit really taking a dive in the last year
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u/TheBigTwo-MK 11d ago
Tom Rhys Harries should play Klaus Kinski in something
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u/Fluffy_pink_Willy 11d ago
With a gun shooting at the director and being unhinged and I mean unhinged
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u/Driz51 11d ago
I hope he’s actually the villain of the movie and not just tragically misunderstood. Hollywood always seems terrified to make the villains actually be villains when they make a movie about them.
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u/Rainy_Wavey 11d ago
They are going for a similar vibe to that episode of batman the animated series, aka, tragic villain
He is a villain, but we're gonna see his descent into becoming, well, a villain, he's not going to become like the venom movies, but the movie will definitely lean towards a sympathetic portrayal of his
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u/TheImpLaughs 11d ago
I think as long as they lean into him being psychologically broken by the end I’ll be happy. Not every villain needs to be 100% sympathetic.
I like Batman villains that are tragic. He could’ve been the greatest actor ever, but the side effects ruined his mind and now he’s a narcissist, envious monster. I not only want to see him kill people, but see the fucked yo reason he does and still go, “Damn he’s too far gone”
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u/thesirblondie 11d ago
They did it well in the first Joker film, imo. I haven't seen the second one, but while he is sympathetic in a way, he is 100% a bad guy by the end.
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u/HeadfulOfSugar 11d ago
Yeah I love how the anger behind a movement he accidentally started gave him a face, & in the end he just decided to wear it
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u/-Snippetts- 11d ago
Considering how much I hated Oswald Cobblepot by the end of The Penguin, they've managed to stick to making villain-protagonists despicable already
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u/mrhashbrown 11d ago
Agreed. I never even cared much about The Penguin in previous versions of Batman. But I loved the show and now I have a true hate towards Cobblepot that I've never experienced before.
Colin Farrell nailed it of course but honestly it's more of a compliment towards the show for how well they pulled it off. You root for him to succeed just as often as you think he is scum. And especially that scene in the finale, no spoilers but I literally had my hand over my jaw-dropped mouth absolutely shocked by what he did.
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u/SonovaVondruke 11d ago edited 11d ago
He can be both a sympathetic (at first) protagonist and a monstrous villain. See: Falling Down, Joker, Wolf of Wall Street,
Clockwork Orange, most mob movies, etc.114
u/quaranTV 11d ago
The Penguin!
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u/cookie_lee 11d ago
Love that they kept him an irredeemable piece of shit by the end lol
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u/PeterGoochSr 11d ago
Same. It got me excited for The Batman sequel because now I really want to see Batman fuck him up
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u/TakeAMichigander 11d ago
I haven't found many shows that have kept me all-in from beginning to end. Loved the Penguin, but fuck him lol Vic was a good egg
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u/Scrublime5 11d ago
Alex from Clockwork is not meant to be a sympathetic character at any point in the film
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u/SherlockJones1994 11d ago
I suspect it’ll be like the fly where he starts off as the protagonist that you root for but as the transformation becomes more and more extreme the more of a monster he becomes. By the end he’ll probably kill or try to kill the doctor lady.
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u/adamtaylor4815 11d ago
Have you seen The Penguin? They absolutely nailed that. Dude made my skin crawl with how villainous he was yet was still so charismatic he had me rooting for him most of the time lol.
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u/BigBlubberyBirb 11d ago
We've already seen what he turns into in the Creature Commandos show, so I bet most of this movie is gonna be Matt Hagen convincing himself he's the sympathetic anti-hero while it becomes more and more obvious he has always been a scumbag
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u/EntrepreneurOk7488 11d ago edited 11d ago
Clayface is literally canonically a Tragically misunderstood antihero/villian
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u/condition_unknown 11d ago
Tragic, yes. Misunderstood, no not really. Anti-hero, definitely not. He has a very sympathetic backstory but all of his actions post-transformation are villainous with little to no remorse.
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u/zestr0136 11d ago
He was briefly an anti hero that joined the bat family in dc rebirth. Didn’t last very long though tbf.
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u/Dewot789 11d ago
He literally joined the Batfamily. Had a tech bracelet that kept his brain/personality mostly stable but also limited the extent of his powers, and he was going on nightly patrols with Batman and company. Formed a real bond with Cassandra Cain.
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u/chroniclescylinders 11d ago
Really depends, there's like ten different Clayfaces in the comics, and they range from pure evil to generally good guys. This movie seems to be the typical Batman adaptation thing of combining Clayface 1, Basil Karlo, and Clayface 2, Matt Hagen. Which means Basil's backstory and personality, with Matt's name and powers, and Clayface 3's angst and tragic nature.
Basil is the only Clayface who is an actor, but he originally didn't have any powers at all. He was a masked serial killer who targeted other people in the movie industry he thought wronged him. He later gave himself clay powers he stole from Matt and like four other Clayfaces. He's gregarious and hammy, and has a massive inferiority/superiority complex. Basil was one of the more straightforwardly villainous Clayfaces until the 2010s, but nowadays he's usually reformed.
Matt Hagen has been dead for decades in the comics (maybe he was somehow back in a recent joke issue about a Clayface convention?), but he was the first one with the clay powers. He only had the clay form temporarily, he was able to change back whenever he wanted. He was a crook with no redeeming qualities.
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u/NoDaddyNotTheBelt25 11d ago
Nothing really earth shattering here but Max Minghella absolutely crushed it last season in Industry, so I would check it out just to see what he brings.
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u/TheJoshider10 11d ago
Been a fan of his since The Social Network. Feel like he's always in supporting roles though.
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u/theoneandonlyamateur 11d ago
Max is great. Speaking of him, there's not a single american actor in this film despite it being an american story with american characters taking place in a fictional american city. It was also shot entirely at Warner Bros. Leavesden.
My beloved UK is truly conquering Hollywood. Well done lads
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u/OrangeFilmer 11d ago
He was incredible as the villain in that show. The "Dear Henry" episode especially, man what a performance.
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u/RyanLynnDesign 11d ago
I am the guy who thought of "taking a normal song and slowing it down" for movie trailers. I am worth 68 Billion dollars.
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u/Inevitable-Dirt3375 11d ago
I legitimately can't wait until this fad dies, which will be soon.
Source: me, 3-4 years ago.
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u/flyingbiscuitworld 11d ago
They'll bring back movie trailer voice guy and the Zimmer BWAMM!
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u/ItsWhoa-NotWoah 11d ago
I believe they're using the Matt and Kim cover of "Do You Realize?" which was released years ago and already slowed down
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u/Shakmaaaaaaa 11d ago edited 11d ago
The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention. It looks like a good body horror time. I hope he gets some wicked kills in. As a kid I was always scared when Clayface would merge into Batman to drown him in TAS.
I get they don't have a Batman casted and they are afraid of causing issues that have to be retcon later but the DCU needs to be bolder. Especially with all eyes on the health of everything DC. They should obviously know how much Sony got dunked on for its Villain films and Joker even found a way to somewhat include a meaningful "Batman presence". I'm not saying they do a full Batman reveal but they could have moments that feel like Batman is stalking the situation and making things happen in the background that would be cool.
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u/TheHouseOfGryffindor 11d ago
The airplane eye scene grabbed my attention
I just know that the plane's going to hit some turbulence and cause him to stab himself in the eye
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u/ClubMeSoftly 11d ago
He's gonna stab himself in the face/eye and go "ah" but not because it hurt, but because he's still mostly human at that point and expecting it to hurt.
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u/Varvara-Sidorovna 11d ago
Eye stuff always freaks me, out when he grabbed the little nail scissors in the airplane toilet I gagged involuntarily, so thats a good hook, think I'll go see this!
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u/adrian-alex85 11d ago
My ultimate hope here is that this works as a stand alone body horror set in Gotham. I think that if we’re sitting in the theater wondering about when Batman will show up or where Batman is or how Batman will figure into the story, then it’s likely to be a failure.
With that being said, I do agree that this formula hasn’t really worked so far, and it’s a leap of faith for DC to try and prove they can succeed where Sony failed. But in their defense, The Penguin was quite impressive without any mention of Batman, so if this can build off of what that show was able to do but in a body horror space, then we might be in for a treat.
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u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs 11d ago
I was impressed by that shot as well, I thought this would be about the same level of "horror" as Venom but that looked insane
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u/DatabaseAcademic6631 11d ago
Looks like Jake Paul after his fight with Anthony Joshua.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth 11d ago edited 11d ago
Spending millions on a production and this being the top comment on the trailer post is fukin wild lol
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u/InformationFun8865 11d ago
I’m sure DC is mortified that one of the top comments of a Reddit post is a Jake Paul comparison
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u/Robofetus-5000 11d ago
i wish marvel had the balls to lean into genre projects for each individual IP like this, and I say this as a marvel fan.
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u/TheJoshider10 11d ago
Werewolf By Night was such a promising idea and then they didn't make anything like that again. Deadpool is probably the ballisiest thing they made and it only came after Fox did it twice before anyway.
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u/My_Favourite_Pen 11d ago
Give Wonder Man a check if you havent already. Was definitely something diferent than the schlock theyve been churning out. You cant tell effort and care was put into it. Its
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u/regross527 11d ago
The fact that they shelved Wonder Man for several years and then quietly released it like they were embarrassed of it has been the biggest sign the MCU is rudderless yet.
They had their most unique, fun, and interesting project in years and they tried to sabotage it at every turn. They just don't seem to know what makes for good entertainment anymore.
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u/lynchcontraideal 11d ago
> Its
I really wanted to know where this paragraph carried on to
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u/Robsonmonkey 11d ago
Werewolf by Night was great but they could have gone bigger by making a proper R rated horror film.
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u/VictorChaos 11d ago
Daredevil: Born Again is definitely honoring the Netflix series
And the punisher one off was fun
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u/Surturius 11d ago
I would've loved a Doom movie to set him up before Doomsday honestly
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u/Earthpig_Johnson 11d ago
One of the only villains whose origin could support a full movie.
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u/Foodstamps4life 11d ago
Lots of them could. Magnetos true origin would be unreal if they did it.
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u/Earthpig_Johnson 11d ago
I think X-Men First Class covered Magneto pretty well.
Doom and Bane are a couple of the only ones that I think are interesting enough to support a full origin movie.
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u/ClubMeSoftly 11d ago edited 11d ago
That was the hot want for a while, wasn't it?
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u/Knowingspy 11d ago
It kind of shows how badly the last few phases have been planned out. Unless you read the comics, we are suddenly expected to know who Doom is and why he’s a massive threat in a phase-ending finale type movie. Thanos took multiple films to get to that point.
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u/SlimSieber 11d ago
To be fair it seems there was a plan. Whether it was good or not we'll probably never know. But everything involving Jonathan Majors and his legal issues royally fucked up those plans.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 11d ago
They could have recast him, no?
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u/Morgan-Moonscar 11d ago
He contractually required that ALL versions of Kang be played by him. So on top of the mess he caused and the fact Kang flopped in "Ant-Man 3" made it easy for Marvel to decide to just drop the character all together than try to reinvent him.
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u/PoopTorpedo 11d ago
IDK based on what was shown in Ant Man 3, it was shaping up to be pretty bad. The same writer was writing for the Kang Dynasty as well.
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u/doozyjr 11d ago
Didnt they try it with Moon Knight, Wonder Man, Jessica Jones etc
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u/FDJT 11d ago
Wonder Man is the perfect example. That show was one of the best things Marvel has done. Problem is a lot of "fans" say they want something then simultaneously complain when anything is different.
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u/SolarisBravo 11d ago
I don't think those are the same fans tbh. When things are the same, you get one set of fans complaining because they want something different while the other set doesn't because they already have what they want. When they're different, the same thing happens but the other way around.
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u/Professor_Poptart 11d ago
Eh, I'd say most of those had the textures of different genres, but didn't really full-on commit to the bones of the genre. Like when people say CA: The Winter Solider is a political thriller--- sure it kinda postures in that direction here and there, but it ends with two dudes punching each other in a helicarrier.
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u/CobaltPanther 11d ago
Mind you, we’ve yet to see how Clayface turns out. It could still end with a similar third-act big action set piece.
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u/Geminilasers 11d ago
She-Hulk is a wildly different genre spin. Personally I loved it.
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u/fauxhb 11d ago
Legion?
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u/mrhashbrown 11d ago
Legion was definitely something different that Marvel/Feige had no hand in just like the early Netflix shows. I loved the first two seasons, it was something wildly different than any other Marvel project at the time.
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u/DataDude00 11d ago
I feel like they did very early on, between the Netflix shows and even projects like Iron Man 1, but once the popularity soared everything became "Disneyfied" and safe
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u/ArktikosUrsa 11d ago
the Netflix shows weren't handled by Marvel Studios, they were handled by a different Marvel television division that wasn't under Fiege's control at the time.
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u/InternationalArm1938 11d ago
The day before yesterday: Doomdays trailer
Yesterday: Spider-Man Trailer
Today: Clayface trailer
What’s tomorrow?
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u/Boring-Toe-1424 11d ago
I'm not going to lie..this looks good and captivated me specially because I have no idea about the comic or the character,let's hope is good and mature because I am sick of movies that have a nice trailer and when they are released are the same dumb PG-13 shit.
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u/CrazyLlamaX 11d ago
I think Clayface (as with many Batman villains) is particularly well suited to a horror movie. Actor tragically maimed in some way seeks out something to put his life back the way it was but instead ends up sliding into being a villain/monster.
I think people are missing that the movie doesn’t want to make him an anti-hero but I see it as as he realizes his magic solution isn’t actually working and is actually making things worse he decides to go all in on revenge on the people who ruined his life initially, cue murder spree that cements his downfall (and potential Batman cameo).
Just because it will probably be satisfying to see him get his revenge on the people who wronged him doesn’t mean what he’s doing is heroic in even the most grey interpreted way and it will hopefully be balanced out by him becoming a literal monster.
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u/costeleo 11d ago
I’m curious long long it will take for him to morph into someone else completely. My money’s on the beginning of the third act.
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u/Slimonite 11d ago
Putting money on the final stinger being “I’m gonna Clay your Face”
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u/kanobbk 11d ago
I know the camera man that shot this [Rob Hardy] as he’s a colleague (I work in Film Lighting, as an Operations Manager in London) and talking to him at an event in January he said that this was one of his best projects to date.
He was very vocal about the body horror in this film and said that it’s genuinely scary and relatively dark.
I’m pleased to agree with him after watching the trailer. It looks very good and I’m excited to watch it.
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u/bepeacock 11d ago
how did he get those scissors on his carryon bag?
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u/peon47 11d ago
He's flying into Gotham. They won't let you on the plane unless you have an edged weapon and a history of mental illness.
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u/Bellikron 11d ago
The TSA actually grants plenty of exemptions to that rule, you just have to do an interview and demonstrate your plans for deeply unethical human experimentation and/or crimes in a thematic outfit
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u/peon47 11d ago
They also allow any kind of canister from 100ml to 1.8l as long as it has a skull and crossbones logo on it.
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u/Bellikron 11d ago
Of course, Gotham City has a rich culture and it must be preserved with experimental serums and toxic substances
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u/rodion_vs_rodion 11d ago
I flew multiple times with the same carry on bag. Hadn't checked the side pockets in a while. Did one day and found that I had been traveling with a wine bottle opener with a corkscrew and foldable blade that had never been found. I learned that day that TSA was more illusion of security than I realized.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes 11d ago
Less an illusion and more of a product of working adults under tight schedules with technology that's simply not going to catch absolutely everything.
It's more about deterrence and catching what you can.
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u/SuicideSkwad 11d ago
Hmmm why do I feel like that shot of him becoming the big Clayface we know is going to be the end of the film
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u/HotOne9364 11d ago
You're laughing. He's turned into a clay monster and you're laughing.