I believe that is the clear choice to direct the first new Star Wars film, set to be released in 2015.

Here's why..

7. As the man who spearheads "The Clone Wars" TV series, Filoni has proven that he understands what makes for solid Star Wars storytelling, action and character development. He is essentially George Lucas's hand-picked successor to carry the banner of Star Wars beyond his own work on the two trilogies and he has done an amazing job doing so. Every episode of the series feels like a mini-movie and some feel more like the Original trilogy than anything created after Return of the Jedi. Season 1's "Destroy Malevolence" has that old school "rescue the Princess from the Death Star" feel and Season 2's "Landing At Point Rain" contains my favorite Star Wars action in the history of the series (seriously, it's THAT good).

6. He is the only living person other than George Lucas to have directed a theatrically released Star Wars film. 2008's "The Clone Wars" may have originally been intended to be the first three episodes of the TV series, but even George Lucas had enough faith in Filoni's take on the material to elevate the status of the series debut to a theatrical release. And according to Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo, the film had a production budget of $8.5 million and earned $68 million worldwide. Not bad for three TV episodes crammed together and shown on a big screen.

5. Since the 2008 debut of "The Clone Wars", he has (other than Lucas himself) become the face of "behind the scenes of Star Wars" to the fan community. And fans love him.

4. Filoni's work on "The Clone Wars" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender" shows that he has a solid history of working on franchises with mythological underpinnings that appeal to children and adults as well as being critically acclaimed and financially successful.

3. Because of his work on the Star Wars TV series (now in its fifth season), Filoni already has an experienced production team in place with a history of creating great new material for the franchise. It would not take much effort to expand that team and begin working on the new theatrical films.

2. As a lifelong Star Wars fan he understands what fans will like. As a great storyteller, he understands what works best for the needs to the story. He has proven that he can balance these two worlds and create stories that hit a sweet spot that will be essential after the Prequel Trilogy created discontent in the Star Wars fan community. By selecting Filoni as director of the first new live-action Star Wars film since 2005, Disney would be telling the fan community that it is entrusting their beloved franchise in the hands of one of their own.

1. Bringing in a new director and organizing a production team from scratch would take time and effort and with Disney's announcement that the new film will be in theaters in 2015 (in May, most likely, based on the history of Star Wars), it means that some kind of production team is already in place and working on pre-production to some degree. The traditional timeline for a Star Wars film is 3 years. Add in a couple of more years of work for the first film in any new trilogy and one would assume that the next new Star Wars film has been in development for a couple of years, most likely even before Lucas began talks with Disney in mid-2011 (which, according to /film.com, is when they began negotiantions for the $4 billion deal). So who would Lucas most likely trust enough to begin developing material for a new Star Wars film? I'm guessing it's the man who was already in charge of churning out new Star Wars mini-films on a weekly basis: Dave Filoni.

I hope I'm right. I think he would make a great film.

Good luck, Dave.

-Otis