Paramount is taking that whole “go boldly where no man has gone before” ethos quite seriously. The studio is moving Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated Star Trek along at warp speed, now tapping The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith to join the team, according to Deadline. As Deadline points out, they make for an interesting odd couple. Tarantino, who usually writes all his own scripts, is known for stuffing scenes with rat-tat-tat dialogue, while The Revenant was often wordless, opting instead to let the harsh frontier and violence do all the talking. But Smith also reportedly became a studio favorite after writing Overlords, an upcoming World War II thriller produced by J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot company. Abrams will also produce Tarantino’s Star Trek movie.

You’re not alone if you’re still wrapping your mind around this concept; Tarantino seems like a surprising, left-field choice for the classic Gene Roddenberry franchise, and details about what he will actually do with his galactic opportunity are still scant. But long before this news was announced, Tarantino revealed himself to be a huge Trekkie, joining the Nerdist podcast in 2015 to gush about the series. When a fan asked if he would like to direct a Star Wars movie, the director pivoted and said he’d be more partial to a Trek film, and added that he was a fan of the 2009 adaptation that Abrams directed.

He also suggested ideas for what he would do if ever given the reins, noting that he would like to have taken an episode, such as “City on the Edge of Forever,” and expand it into a one-off film: “It’s one of the classic stories of all time! And one of the great time -travel stories.” Tarantino also name-checked another episode, “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” which has expansion appeal—and lest you doubt his fan credibility, he really goes into detail in the last few minutes of the podcast.

Not only does he have trekkie clout, but Tarantino also has guaranteed box-office appeal—which is exactly what Paramount needs right now. With Disney continually dominating the sci-fi landscape thanks to Star Wars and endless Marvel movies, Star Trek is a key franchise for the studio, one that needs to be reinvigorated every few years. Deadpool showed that R-rated versions of classic nerd fare can do ridiculously well at the box office, so Tarantino’s Star Trek could be checking off a lot of boxes.

In the meantime, Tarantino is still working on his other R-rated project, a true crime story about Charles Manson that will reportedly star Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate. Ah, that’s more like the director we’ve all come to know.