They’ve got ambition and talent as well as just beauty,” Saoirse Ronan’s Jo March declares of her sisters in the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. “I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it.” The message is clear: this is Louisa May Alcott’s progressive masterpiece – with the volume turned up on the feminist messaging. Diehard fans of the novel, however, will be relieved that many classic scenes appear as written by Alcott herself – with plenty of nods to the 1994 film, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Bale, as well.

Of course, the best moments in the trailer belong to Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, who plays the March girls’ wealthy neighbour Laurie, who falls deeply in love with the capricious Jo. Gerwig of course directed Ronan and Chalamet together in Ladybird, cementing their status as Hollywood darlings in the process.

Among the other highlights? Laura Dern at her most charming as matriarch Marmee, and Meryl Streep as the perpetually grouchy Aunt March, who gives Downton Abbey’s Lady Violet a run for her money with her barbed one-liners. “You’ll need to marry well,” she warns Jo, only for her niece to point out, “But you’re not married, Aunt March.” Her hilarious response? “Well, that’s because I’m rich.” Rounding out the starry cast are Emma Watson as Meg; Eliza Scanlen as Beth; Florence Pugh as Amy; and James Norton as John Brooke. Watch the trailer in full below, and stay tuned for film, set to hit cinemas on 25 December.

Originally published on British Vogue.