The countdown is on until Steve Carell makes his highly (high as the heavens!) anticipated exit from The Office at the end of this season, and UK Office creator and star Ricky Gervais has officially made his suggestion for Michael Scott’s replacement at Dunder-Mifflin: Will Arnett.

“Had a little meeting with NBC about various things and recommended Will Arnett for a regular in The Office. Thoughts? I think he’s amazing,” Gervais wrote in his blog.

My thoughts: Like most of Gervais’s ideas, I like it! So he didn’t say “Michael’s replacement” in so many words, but it’s hard to imagine Arnett in another “regular” role than as the bossy, hapless and hilarious new regional manager. He’s just too big a personality, and a talent, to play second-string to a different new character, don’t you think?

Arnett is probably available, since his FOX show Running Wilde was canceled earlier this year, and we know he’d fit right in on NBC Thursday nights: He recurs on 30 Rock as closet-case Devon Banks, and made a delightful cameo last season opposite his real-life wife Amy Poehler on her show (which is killing it again this season), Parks and Recreation. Isn’t The Office the next logical step? (And then, if he showed up on Community, would he win some sort of awesomeness bingo?)

What do you think? Could Arnett go from his iconic role as Arrested Development‘s GOB Bluth to replacing another TV icon by the name of Michael Scott?

Think you know someone better to fill Michael’s shoes? Let the couch-casting begin in the comments!

Related: Read about Will Ferrell’s upcoming guest stint on The Office season 7.

(Image courtesy of NBC)