When you think of the DC Universe, chances are one of the first concepts that comes to mind is Gotham City. After nearly ninety years of storytelling in DC comics, movies and television, Gotham has become a character in its own right—one that has been transformed and reinterpreted as many times as her most famous resident, Batman, has.
DC Studios’ latest film, Clayface, puts Gotham front and center, and doesn’t shy away from juxtaposing this big rotten apple of a city with other locations in the DC Universe like Coast City and Metropolis. As it turns out, Gotham has plenty to say even when Batman isn’t in the picture, thanks to detailed worldbuilding from director James Watkins.
In the film, it’s hard to miss the difference in feeling that Gotham has from Coast City in particular, which is where Matt Hagen (Clayface) has built a glamorous life as a movie star. Director James Watkins went deep in developing a unique visual language for each city.
“In terms of those different landscapes, Coast City was always kind of sunny and sea, and there’s verdant greens,” shares Watkins. “So, it’s hope in some way. There are pastel tones, whereas Gotham is this overbearing city. It’s corrupt. Lady Justice on the top of the law courts is covered in bird shit. The trash doesn’t get taken away. James Price, my production designer, we looked at a lot of 1930s German expressionist cinema where the buildings, the canyons, loom over you, and individuals are dwarfed in the landscape. So, it was very much a very deliberate collision of landscapes.”
For actor Tom Rhys Harries, who plays Matt Hagen in the film, this world building was energizing.
“I think what’s so exciting about our opportunity here is to establish a Gotham that feels vibrant and dark and gothic,” he says.
This vibrancy is what makes Clayface’s vision of Gotham move from a fictional world to one that feels so real that you can empathize with the people living in it. Seeing Gotham stand on its own two feet without Batman in the picture is provocative to see onscreen because you’re left to wonder what it is that keeps people living within its city limits.
“It’s funny, I did think about this while watching the movie,” DC Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee tells me. “My thought was, ‘Why do people want to live here?’ When [Matt Hagen] goes back to his old hood, it’s not the loveliest neighborhood. But I do love the fact that they are exploring what it’s like to live in the city. Usually [in movies] it’s always like cops, district attorneys, the movers and shakers, and then obviously Batman. In Clayface, you get to see actors, scientists… Why do people live here? There must be some redeeming factors. It must be somewhat of a city that you can live in. Otherwise, what would be the point?”
You have to imagine it’s a puzzle to all the residents of the DC Universe who live outside Gotham City. I asked Sean Gunn, who plays Maxwell Lord in the DCU, and his thoughts are that Gotham is “in need of like, existential cleansing,” which I can’t argue with.
“I can tell you that as Maxwell Lord, I’m a lot more familiar with Metropolis than I am with Gotham,” he continues. “I don’t think that we have the crime on our streets in Metropolis that they have in Gotham.”
Metropolis certainly has plenty of white-collar crime, though. Right, Mr. Lord?
“Well, we don’t need to talk about that,” he laughs.
With so much uncertainty regarding Gotham, perhaps it isn’t surprising that the acclaimed comic book scribe and screenwriter Paul Dini would have the answers for why people stay in the city for life.
“Gotham is big, exciting, maddening, heartbreaking, but [is] ultimately [a] satisfying place to be if you can make your peace with it,” he says. “And I think it’s a wonderful metaphor for a world where people can be who they want to be, for good and evil.”
In other words, the extremes of Gotham City provide the perfect grounds for both the heroes and villains of the DC Universe to embrace their full potential. Gotham is where legends are made.
To be clear, Clayface does show that Gotham isn’t all doom and gloom. In one short but affecting scene, we see Matt play a game of pickup basketball outdoors with some other guys in the Narrows, the neighborhood where he’s from. It’s a rare moment of sunshine (literally) for both the character and the city. And while we all know just how bad Gotham can get, that game of basketball looks incredibly enticing and fun. There’s a lot of hurt that exists in Gotham at any given moment, but none of it was on that basketball court.
Harries revealed that the basketball scene was “sprung up” on him “fairly last minute.”
“I grew up in Cardiff where people don’t really play basketball,” he admits. “It was just a case of have fun and look confident doing it, because Lord knows, I don’t think there’s a basketball movie in me any time soon.”
Just like Clayface himself, the DCU has been carving out its own identity with each film and TV project that hits screens, and the distinctions between various geographical locations make everything all the more special as it takes shape.
“I think DC does such a fantastic job of creating the wonder of Metropolis, the many, many layers of intrigue in Gotham,” says Stephen Blackehart, who played the bespectacled LuthorCorp scientist Sydney Happersen in Superman and Peacemaker. “I love that they’re not trying to make it New York and LA and things like that. James [Gunn] has said [that] instead of bringing those superheroes into our world and making it gritty and stuff, we’re going into their world. And I think that’s a lot more fun. I remember going to see Star Wars when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘I want to go live in that world. I don’t necessarily want a TIE fighter to land here.’”
Clayface, directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, is in theaters Friday.
Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, movies and superheroes for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Popverse, Nerdist and Multiverse of Color. Follow him on Instagram at @infinitevibes and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.
