Natalie Portman Teasing Star Wars Return?
Natalie Portman recently stated that she would be open to reprising her role as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars franchise. During a recent interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Portman stated that no one had asked her to return to Star Wars but that she was ready to answer the call if Lucasfilm provided the opportunity.
Besides saying that she would return to the franchise, Natalie Portman also recalled her experience in the Star Wars prequel trilogy being nothing short of amazing. She recounted that it was the first time she had ever worked digitally and the first time working with a green screen. Portman characterized the whole experience of working digitally as a new set of skills to pick up and a whole new world to enter.
For those who aren’t familiar with Star Wars and the massive mega-franchise it has grown into in the last five decades—and yes, those people do exist—Natalie Portman made her first appearance as Padme in 1999’s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Unfortunately, the character met a tragic death in 2005’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but not before giving birth to Luke and Leia, the protagonists of the original 1977 trilogy.
This potentially means that the character arc has been concluded, but Lucasfilm has recently proven that it can revisit and expand the arcs of ill-fated characters from the prequel era, which was quite evident from 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and 2022’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+, which was a massive success for Disney.
It was even liked by the newcomers to the franchise, but its success wasn’t enough for Lucasfilm to consider making a second season—at least for the time being. But this spells good news for Natalie Portman’s possible return.
However, it’s ultimately up to Disney and Lucasfilm to decide whether they want to give Natalie Portman’s Padme more screen time or not. But the bigger question is whether they should make yet another Star Wars release.
The House of the Mouse has been struggling with its flagship products recently. The MCU reviews and critical receptions are at an all-time low, and the continuous content output has started to affect Star Wars, as well. The market is saturated, the quantity has drowned quality, and the fandom isn’t particularly happy about it.
We’re not saying that Natalie Portman’s return as Padme in Star Wars would be bad; quite the contrary, we’d like to see more of her getting involved. However, not even a star-studded cast can make up for the loss of quality, and Disney and Lucasfilm might really want to consider hiring a Godzilla Minus One director to do a Star Wars movie, as it might freshen up the franchise, and provide Natalie Portman with the release worthy of her return.
Interestingly enough, during their work on Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi actually asked Natalie Portman whether she’d like to be in his upcoming Star Wars project, completely oblivious that she had quite a prominent role in the prequel trilogy.
