Doctor Who star Karen Gillan is jumping from one science fiction adventure to another. The actress has signed on to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Though it’s not clear what role Gillan will play, The Hollywood Reporter says she’ll take on the lead female villain role. Although her work is primarily in television, Gillan is looking to expand her film career. She has three other films currently in production: Oculus, The List, and Not Another Happy Ending.

Guardians of the Galaxy will begin filming in the United Kingdom in late June.

Casting has been moving steadily over the couple of months. In that time, we’ve learned that Glenn Close, Zoe Saldana, Lee Pace (Twilight, The Hobbit), Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead), and Dave Bautista (WWE wrestler) have all joined the project.

Guardians of the Galaxy follows a futuristic, alien superhero team protecting the galaxy from evil led by Peter Quill (played by Chris Pratt). The galactic team first appeared in Marvel comics in 1969, and the film is viewed by Marvel as another Avengers franchise.

Guardians of the Galaxy will open in theaters August 1, 2014. It is directed by James Gunn.

Gillan is mostly known for her role as Amy Pond, a companion character that traveled with the Doctor from season 5 through seven of Doctor Who. Known as ‘The Girl Who Waited,’ her character in the show is the absolute opposite of any villain that could be in Guardians of the Galaxy, so we’re interested to see how she takes on the challenge. Gillan only recently left Doctor Who at the end of last year, and it seems she’s eager to step apart from the historic sci-fi drama.

We don’t blame Gillan for wanting to step away from the sci-fi franchise. In fact, we hope that her success in differentiating herself in the U.S. is greater than that of Billie Piper and Freema Agyeman, both of whom played the Doctor’s previous companions, Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, respectively. Piper and Agyeman had only been in a handful of productions that no one has really come to love as much as Doctor Who, at least not in the U.S. It seems the only other companion to garner major success elsewhere would be Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble on Doctor Who and went on to catch a hysterical role in NBC’s The Office.

In fact, it seems that Gillan is already becoming more successful than past female companions, as this is the first time any of them has landed a major American film. Arthur Darvill, who played Gillan’s romantic interest, Rory Williams, on Doctor Who is in a current production of Once on Broadway, and Matt Smith who plays the Doctor, is filming his own American film with Ryan Gosling. There must be some lucky mojo in for the cast of Doctor Who‘s season five!

Thanks, THR.