A clash between two comic book movies wasn’t a matter of if but when. Now that Avatar 2 has been pushed back, studios have set their eyes on the winter holiday release.

And for Sony and Warner Bros. they have decided to mark their calendars to release their respective films — the untitled animated Spider-Man movie and Aquaman — on December 21, 2018. That means, we are getting our first Marvel vs DC showdown at the theaters. More on the story below.

While Warner Bros. and DC try to figure out how to lock down a director for The Batman, James Wan is moving ahead with Aquaman. An image of a table read with Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, and Patrick Wilson showed things were progressing very nicely.

Now it looks like the cast will grow. A new report says The Get Down‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has signed on the play Black Manta, while Nicole Kidman is in talks to play Aquaman’s mother. More on both of these stories below.

Warner Brothers and director James Wan have found a villain to do battle with star Jason Momoa in the upcoming DC Extended Universe movie Aquaman.

It’s being reported that Watchmen, The Conjuring, and Insidious star Patrick Wilson has joined the cast. Wilson is set to play Orm Marius, also known as Ocean Master, one of Aquaman’s greatest enemies who also happens to be his half-brother.

Warner Bros. released two more DC Extended Universe films this year — Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, both of which performed modestly at the box office but were poorly received by critics alike. But since Geoff Johns and Jon Berg came in as co-heads for the DCEU, Wonder Woman and Justice League have never looked more promising. The two upcoming films look to be straying away from the grim and dark tone set up with the previous movies, including the one that launched the current DCEU, Man of Steel. And now we are getting a better picture of how their influence will impact the future of the DCEU films. Check out what they had to say here below.

Things may not be looking good for the DCEU right now, but the future does look bright thanks to the studio making the necessary adjustments to steering the ship in the right direction. The studio brought in promising filmmakers to direct the respective films, and hiring Geoff Johns and Jon Berg was an excellent decision that will hopefully better guide products like Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

One of those promising filmmakers actually has proven himself to the studio with a couple of hit films. James Wan has given Warner Bros. one hit after another with his great horror flicks, and after proving himself able to direct a film with a larger budget – and under terrible circumstances – it only seemed right that he be rewarded for his efforts with a superhero tentpole.

Aquaman isn’t quite ready to hit theaters just yet, but we will get a better introduction of him in Justice League. Now, Wan is raising expectations of the character pretty high with comments like “he’s kind of the Wolverine in some respect.” More on the story below.