Fresh off her Oscar win for Nomadland, which won Best Picture at last year’s Academy Awards, Chloé Zhao is set to release her next film which will come as a surprise to those who have followed her career up to this point. She isn’t the kind of filmmaker you would immediately associate with Marvel blockbusters, which is perhaps why Eternals will be a gamechanger for the comic book genre. Zhao expressed her love for Gemma Chan’s superhero Sersi, which is a different kind of female superhero, by her account.

As Zhao told Vogue UK, as reported by IndieWire, “Gemma was very interested in this idea as well and took on the challenge. She is a great actress. Very intelligent and brave. She brought a beautiful sense of gentleness, compassion, and vulnerability to Sersi that I believe will invite viewers to rethink what it means to be heroic.” It goes far beyond a cash grab for Zhao, who is a fan of the MCU, as her passion for the character and story can be seen, with its clear distinction from the superhero movies that play in theaters every year.

The film also stars Richard Madden and Kit Harington, who both starred in HBO’s biggest series Game of Thrones. That’s not the only GoT connection, as award-winning composer Ramin Djawadi will score Eternals, which is his second Marvel film, his first being Iron Man. That film began the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is now on its twenty-sixth picture with this new release. Other cast members include Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, and Angelina Jolie, among others in this star-studded adventure. Eternals opens in theaters on November 5th.