Who is Clayface? Exploring origins amidst rumors of appearance in the potential Penguin show from Reeves-verse and The Batman 2

With the revelation that Matt Reeves will be joined by Mattson Tomlin for the writing of The Batman 2, many fans are excited to hear that the sequel is in the works at Warner Bros Discovery given the recent cancelations of their films. With the film greenlit, many fans are excited to see what the sequel brings.

The Batman featured the enigmatic Riddler as the villain. With that out of the way now, fans have been clamoring to see a villain who hasn't been in live-action before, and the biggest fan voted contender right now seems to be Clayface. With Clayface now in the conversation, let's take a look at the character's history and just how he could be incorporated into the sequel.

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Exploring Clayface's origins amidst fans wanting him to appear in The Batman 2

Clayface goes by the name Basil Karlo and throughout the years has had various renditions of him come up in the comic books. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Clayface happens to be a more fantastical villain of Batman who in recent times has shown to be a towering monster made of mud, but he wasn't always like this. The supervillian has a clay-like body and shapeshifting abilities.

Matt Reeves' Batverse is very much grounded in reality and having a fantastical villain like him show up in the sequel would be quite out of the ordinary. So, if adapted, how should he be portrayed? Well, that's simple, you can always adapt the Golden Age version of Clayface from the comics.

While the one that we know now is very much a monster, in the Golden Age he was pretty much a normal man. Basil Karlo was a B-list actor who went insane after hearing that a remake of his film titled Dread Castle would be shot without him in the cast. Despite being on the advising staff for the film, Karlo was pretty heartbroken by the revelation.

He would then don the Clayface costume, a character he had played in a different film, and then would go on a murdering spree and kill actors the same way he killed them in the film. Thankfully, Batman and Robin were able to stop him and put an end to his madness.

He eventually returned and targeted Bruce Wayne later on. The inspiration behind Clayface was revealed to be from The Phantom of the Opera. He stated that the name of the character originated by combining the names of Bors Karloff and Basil Rathbone.

If adapted, Matt Reeves could potentially have another great murder-mystery-like story on his hands. There is also a rumor that stated earlier this year that Clayface might appear in the upcoming Penguin show. The casting grid mentioned a character whose description matched that of Clayface's. Collin Farrell is reported to have signed on to play The Penguin in a series spinoff of The Batman.

So if he does show up in the Reeves-verse, then maybe adapting the villain like this might be a great idea. However, these are just rumors and we should wait until some official confirmation is shared.