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.

Ben Affleck tweeted a short video today supposedly from the set of Justice League giving his followers a tantalizing glimpse of an iconic DC Comics character who, according to a source for Umberto Gonzalez’s original story at The Wrap, could be the main villain in the untitled standalone Batman movie Affleck will star in as well as co-write, produce, and direct. Check out the video below of the reveal of Deathstroke.

Suicide Squad is out and kicking butt at the box office despite withering reviews. Wonder Woman is in post-production and expected to be one of the big blockbusters of next summer. Justice League is still filming and hopes to pack theaters and reap riches the following November. Next on deck is Aquaman, which has yet to begin filming under the direction of James Wan (The Conjuring, Furious 7) but is locking up a fine cast headed by star Jason Momoa (who makes his screen debut as DC Comics’ Atlantean warrior king in Justice League).

Now it has been revealed which villain Aquaman will oppose in his first big screen solo adventure: Black Manta, one of Arthur Curry’s greatest foes. More below.

Three films into the DC Extended Universe and the cinematic comic book shared universe has built somewhat of a reputation for putting out bad movies, or movies that will be negatively criticized by critics. Some say these critics have been paid by Marvel Studios – if you believe in such a conspiracy – while others just want to believe that DCEU films get a bad rap. No matter how you slice it, we are still going to get films based on DC characters, at least until 2020. So hopefully by then Wonder Woman would have steered the DCEU ship into the right direction or at least save it from sinking itself.

It’s still hard to believe that Suicide Squad shares the same criticisms as the previous two DCEU films. But John Ostrander, the creator of the comic the movie is based on, believes that critics had it out for the film since the very beginning. More on the story below.

Three years after it launched DC Comics’ cinematic universe with a $668 million global box office gross, the Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot Man of Steel is finally getting a standalone sequel, as an unnamed source familiar with the developing film at Warner Bros. told Umberto Gonzalez at The Wrap.

Plans for a sequel were changed not long after Man of Steel was released in the summer of 2013 when Snyder announced at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con that the follow-up would pit Superman against Batman. The end result, released this past March, was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which also featured the first appearance of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Cyborg.