James Watkins said he added a third-act fight scene to Clayface, and the decision now sits at the center of a broader DC Universe debate over how much control filmmakers should keep. In his view, the film works because the studio stepped back and let the material breathe, even as Supergirl became the franchise's first flop this past summer.
Watkins’ third-act sequence
Watkins described the sequence as the part of Clayface that lets the audience lean into the payoff. He said he wanted to “beef up Matt's journey upstairs [to confront mobster Markos Szabo]” and added, “I kept talking about capturing the feeling of Robin Hood movies, or a film like El Cid, where they storm the castle.”
He also said, “I also wanted to show Matt discovering and experiencing the dark glee that comes with his powers.” That approach turned a late-film confrontation into the scene critics singled out, alongside Tom Rhys Harries’ lead performance, and it gave the movie a clearer identity than the DC projects that have felt more managed from above.
Supergirl and Clayface
Supergirl opened in theaters this past summer and underperformed at the box office. Reports said DC Studios took over post-production from Craig Gillespie a week after its release, and the final theatrical cut is being treated as the studio’s own rather than his.
Clayface arrived three months later and earned significantly better reviews. That comparison is what makes Watkins’ argument more than a director’s preference: the film’s reception suggests that a more hands-off approach can leave room for a stronger creative payoff, especially when a project is trying to separate itself from the four James Gunn-heavy projects that came before it.
DC Studios and 2026
Watkins’ point lands hardest because he is not describing a vague philosophy; he is pointing to a working model. Mike Flanagan wrote the original draft of Clayface, but Watkins and Hossein Amini shaped the version that critics and fans responded to, which is why the film now reads as the cleaner case for letting filmmakers finish what they start.
That leaves DC Studios with a practical decision heading into its 2026 film slate: keep intervening after the fact, or trust directors earlier and more completely. Watkins has already made his preference plain, and Clayface gives the studio a recent example of what happens when the payoff scene belongs to the filmmaker instead of the committee.
