This December, everything’s coming up March. Louisa May Alcott’s immortal quartet of fictional sisters will hit the big screen once again in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women, and the filmmaker assembled an A-list cast to bring the American classic to life.

For her tomboyish heroine Jo and romantic hero Laurie, Gerwig reteamed with her Lady Birdstars Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet (both of whom appear, by the looks of the trailer, to have been born for these iconic roles). “I just adore them. They are just spectacular as live actors, and there is some true pairing between them that feels like [it’s] in the tradition of great cinematic pairing,” the filmmaker tells EW and PEOPLE. “I don’t know what they do — I mean, it’s magic. I direct them, but it’s all there.”