Clayface is out, and a movie about a shapeshifter naturally involves a decent amount of that. Once the movie’s established its main players, you can guess who Matt Hagen will end up being, but there’s one blink and you’ll miss it face that would’ve added another facet to Matt’s character.
That would be Aaron Paul as Jimmy “One Nut,” Matt’s father referenced earlier in the film by a Gotham gangster who killed him. In the third act, Matt storms mobster Victor Szabo’s club, briefly becoming Jimmy long enough to distract that same gangster and punch him. Originally, we would’ve seen more of Paul in the film—director James Watkins told Entertainment Weekly he’d have featured in scenes flashing back to Matt’s childhood in Gotham.
In those sequences, Paul would’ve played the elder, abusive Hagen, with Watkins explaining the film almost explored “sins of the father” as a theme. Over time, he decided revenge was “more universal and relatable,” citing movies like John Wick and The Equalizer as evidence. To him, Matt “is a decent guy, then like all people, we all have primal impulses within us that can be dangerous, whether that’s impulses for love, whether that’s impulses for retribution.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re carrying a trauma or any of that,” Watkins continued. “If we’re slighted, we carry this sense of being wronged and we all want to do something, but generally in life we can’t do anything about it and we’re powerless.”
As a result, Paul’s Jimmy was used to help Matt get his revenge and “probably” prove that he’s not his father. But if that’s Watkins’ intent, maybe Clayface should’ve had at least one of those flashbacks to properly make that point?
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