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Last month, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told The Guardian that there was “nothing we’d like more than to find a female director for Star Wars.” She spoke passionately about the incorrect assumption that most Star Wars fans were men, and her disappointment in the dwindling presence of women in the film industry – and then she revealed 50% of her executive team was female, and six of the eight individuals involved in the development of the film were women. Female-directed blockbusters are almost unheard of, but Kennedy seems to be intent on changing that.

JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is due in theaters in December, and while it’s exciting that one of the new protagonists (Rey, played by Daisy Ridley) is a young woman, the franchise is long overdue for a woman’s presence behind the camera. Here are five of the plethora of women who could harness the force and direct a Star Wars film.

Ana Lily Amirpour

NOTABLE WORK: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)

While relative newbie Ana Lily Amirpour doesn’t have a long list of features to boast, the Iranian-American director made waves last year with vampire horror-romance A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, self-described as “the first Iranian vampire spaghetti Western.” With just one feature under her belt thus far, Amirpour has already demonstrated a fresh feminist agenda, an impressive mastery of combining genres, and a unique patience when it comes to the images she puts on screen. Star Wars, in a sense, thrives on a director’s ability to put a fresh-yet-familiar feeling spin on a long-established genre, and Amirpour seems to have a talent for doing just that. She’s currently working on her next feature, The Bad Batch, a dystopian cannibal romance set to star Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, and Game of Thrones’ Jason Momoa, which she’s described as “really weird and romantic and also very violent.” If these two films are any indication of the diverse and innovative stories Amirpour is capable of telling, it’s clear that a Star Wars film from her would certainly shake things up.

Mary Harron

NOTABLE WORK: American Psycho (2000), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

Mary Harron is a name best remembered for her innovative and groundbreaking work on cult classic American Psycho, but the fight she endured to make the film her way and ensure that it starred then-relatively unknown Welsh actor Christian Bale proved that she was just as suited for Hollywood as any of the popular male directors at the time. She stood her ground despite being told that making this film would be career suicide, and even fought the MPAA on the rating given to the film. Mary Harron is a fighter, and over her 20+ year career, Harron has demonstrated that she can do just about anything. Her passion for making the industry more inclusive for women also means that she’d uphold Kennedy’s habit of evening the score when it comes to film crews, allowing for a more balanced production on a massive blockbuster. While she’s stuck more to television series over the last few years (an impressive list that includes shows like Six Feet Under, Big Love, and The Following, among others), a Mary Harron Star Wars film would bring something unexpected, dark, and dynamic to the franchise – and you can be sure she’d make it her way.

Kathryn Bigelow

NOTABLE WORK: Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The Hurt Locker (2008), Point Break (1991)

Kathryn Bigelow might feel like the most obvious choice on this list, but she’s damn well earned it. As the first female recipient of the Academy Award for Best Director, she’s no stranger to tackling the boys club that is Hollywood. As long ago as 1990, she demonstrated an incredible self-awareness and determination in her craft: “…if there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.” And she’s done just that. Her vast repertoire proves that she can tackle action sequences with unique flair, achieve compelling dramatic tension in any situation, and maintain her trademark auteur style with whichever script she chooses as her next endeavor. She’s also no stranger to successfully balancing ensemble casts, an important component of the franchise. Her consistent efforts to advance the medium ensure that a Bigelow Star Wars would expand the incomparable charm we all succumbed to in the original trilogy and bring us face to face with another classic in the series.

Ava DuVernay

NOTABLE WORK: Selma (2014), Middle of Nowhere (2012), I Will Follow (2010)

The impact of Selma, Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed 2014 historical drama, is not to be underestimated. Despite the ludicrous omission of DuVernay amongst the Best Director nominations at last year’s Academy Awards, Selma still very much showed the world what she was capable of. DuVernay is committed to making films that she’s proud of putting her name on and maintaining her style (she stepped away from Marvel’s Black Panther for fear that it wouldn’t “be an Ava DuVernay film” if too many compromises had to be made). There’s a special authenticity about DuVernay’s work, a unique emotional sincerity, and Star Wars has always centered on just that. As the first black woman to receive the Directing Award at Sundance, as well the first to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, DuVernay has only just started making history with her innovative and significant work. Throwing a Star Wars film into the mix would surely be a gift for all of us.

Michelle MacLaren

NOTABLE WORK: Episodes of Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, The Leftovers, Better Call Saul

Canadian director-producer Michelle MacLaren has yet to make the leap from television to the silver screen, but it’s only a matter of time. She came close when it was announced she would be directing Warner Brothers’ Wonder Woman film, but later departed the project reportedly due to “creative differences.” She’s now set to direct James Franco in HBO’s The Deuce, which is sure to be only the beginning of her film career. MacLaren has conquered a number of universes, from Albuquerque to Westeros, and a Galaxy Far, Far Away doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch for her. Her mastery of science fiction (from years of producing The X–Files), affinity for strong drama with a dash of comedy (hello, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), and ability to hone in on an utterly expansive universe (Game of Thrones) proves that MacLaren strikes all the right chords for a Star Wars film.

And, finally…

An unknown. What better woman to direct a Star Wars film than one who has dreamed about it her whole life, one who understands the universe to an extent that many people can’t even begin to imagine? We’ve heard the charming stories of JJ Abrams’ childhood obsession with Star Wars, and watched him conquer the galaxy (with more than one franchise) alongside his heroes. Star Wars has a tradition of discovering unknown talent and bringing it to the forefront and it would be interesting to see this tradition implemented behind the camera. Kathleen Kennedy is intent on “nurturing talent”, though she acknowledges the sheer scale of the franchise, and how daunting it would be for a green filmmaker: “We need to not go to a filmmaker who’s done one movie and expect them to come in and do something the size of Star Wars without having an opportunity to find other movies they can do along the way.” Is the hiring of an unknown director unrealistic? Completely. But there’s certainly something exciting about handing the microphone to previously unheard voices — and perhaps that’s what Star Wars will do when it eventually hires its first female director, whether one from this list, or from the hundreds of completely qualified and talented women who can take on this task.

Jade Budowski is an indecisive sometimes-writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Photos: Getty