The San Diego Comic-Con kicks off tomorrow, and DC Studios and Warner Brothers are setting the stage by dropping the first full trailer for Clayface, part of the DC Universe's "Gods and Monsters" arc.

The film started out as a Mike Flanagan project (he's the horror master who brought us The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass, and Doctor Sleep, among other creepy delights). Flanagan said he was inspired by the 1992 "Feat of Clay" episode in Batman: The Animated Series, aspiring to create a film that combined body horror with a tragic thriller. DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran loved Flanagan's pitch and brought the movie into their rebooted DCU.

Alas, Flanagan had to bow out of the project due to scheduling conflicts—he's a busy man these days—and James Watkins stepped in as director. But Gunn has said the final script retained Flanagan's original story, with Hossein Amini doing some rewrites. The film will feature the origin story of the Matt Hagen incarnation of Clayface, introduced to the DCU in the animated Creature Commandos series (Alan Tudyk voiced the character). Per the official premise:

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The Odyssey might be cleaning up at the box office at the moment, but in two weeks another mega-blockbuster hits theaters: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Sony Pictures dropped one last trailer for this follow-up to 2021’s No Way Home, which is purportedly intended to launch a fresh trilogy of films with Tom Holland in the title role.

No Way Home ended on a pretty bleak note, with Peter Parker (Holland) asking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to erase him from everyone’s memory to protect the multiverse, including his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya). Per the official synopsis:

It’s a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves–a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.

Holland is reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, along with Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Peter’s former bestie Ned Leeds. The film also features Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Michael Mando as Mac Gargan/Scorpion (captured by Spider-Man in Homecoming), Marvin Jones III as albino crime lord Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil (briefly Peter’s lawyer in No Way Home); Liza Colon-Zayas as detective Jean DeWolf; Eman Esfandi as MJ's new boyfriend; and Trammell Tillman as Bill Metzger of the Department of Damage Control (DODC) who is policing superpowered individuals.

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With San Diego Comic-Con kicking off later this week, Marvel Studios has released the first official full trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, the penultimate film in the MCU's Phase Six and the end of the so-called "Multiverse Saga."

(Spoilers for prior relevant MCU films below.)

Marvel Studios originally planned to build its Phase Six Avengers arc (The Kang Dynasty) around Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror (and associated variants), introduced in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But then Majors was convicted of domestic violence, and Marvel fired the actor soon after. That meant the studio needed to retool its Phase Six plans, culminating in the announced return of the Russo brothers, who directed four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most successful films, which brought in more than $6 billion at the global box office.

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