Clayface includes a major location callback from Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins

Fans noticed something in Clayface, as the DCU movie is playing in theaters: an Easter egg to DC's past on the big screen. After Matt Hagen's attack, the broke actor returns to the rough neighborhood he was raised in: the Narrows. If that name rings a bell, that's because the Narrows was introduced in 2005's Batman Begins.

Since the neighborhood's inclusion in the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie, DC has incorporated the Narrows into the Gotham of the comics in the 2010s. Therefore, it isn't surprising that the Narrows was included in Clayface as well. However, unlike Batman Begins, the Narrows does not play a big role in the DCU project.

What is the Narrows' significance in Clayface?

The Narrows' role in Clayface is significant because Matt was raised in the poor neighborhood. He escaped impoverishment by becoming a rising star, only to return after crime boss Markos Szabo's attack. Thus, the neighborhood's significance is tied to Hagen's need to escape poverty. Conversely, the neighborhood played a key role in Batman Begins.

The Narrows as seen in Batman Begins | Image Via: Prime Video/www.primevideo.com

The neighborhood is one of the many areas that's adversely hit by Scarecrow's fear toxin in the last act of Batman Begins. In fact, even before the third act, the neighborhood was set up as a place adversely hit by poverty, something that it never recovered from.

However, the Narrows did not play a role in the other two movies of the Christopher Nolan Trilogy, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. But since its appearance in Batman Begins, the Narrows has appeared in other mediums like the comics, Gotham, and now, the DCU.

Apart from being linked to Hagen's past, the Narrows doesn't have any other major role in Clayface. However, it still sets up something important about the movie.

The Narrows shows how corrupt the DCU Gotham is:

Regardless of the continuity, one thing is a constant about Gotham: The city is crime-ridden and corrupt, where even the police can't be trusted. The DCU movie carries forward this tradition. On one hand, there are high-rises, and on the other are rough neighborhoods. James Watkins famously described the DCU Gotham in SFX Magazine as follows:

"We looked at a lot of 1980s and 1990s street photography. There was a documentary called Everybody Street, and I looked at a lot of the work of the photographers in it. It captures the bawdy glamor of New York, slightly edgy, slightly eccentric, slightly menacing, richly saturated colors."

The director went on to say:

"We want the world [of Gotham] to be corrupt. We want it to be a city where litter doesn't get picked up, where there's a sense of decay, where there's dirt, where the canyons of these places are overbearing."

Does Batman appear in the movie?

Simply put, no; the Dark Knight doesn't appear in the DCU movie anywhere. Director James Watkins had addressed Batman's presence in the SFX Magazine interview, saying:

"You're in a city called Gotham. So I guess you feel the shadow of the Bat inherently. Because of the nature of where you are."

Moreover, DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran was also asked where Batman was during the events of the DCU movie during a Collider interview. To this, Safran answered:

"We haven't really talked about what he's doing during the actual events of Clayface. But Batman is there. This is the introduction to the live-action Gotham. We showed a silhouette of Batman in Creature Commandos, so you know he's around, but this is the first step into the world of Gotham for us."

Therefore, DC Studios is slowly building towards The Dark Knight's first appearance in the DCU.