Padmé Amidala

Padmé Amidala (, PAD-may AH-mih-DAH-lə) is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. She first appeared in the 1999 film The Phantom Menace as the teenage queen of the fictional planet Naboo. In the following two films of the prequel trilogy, Padmé becomes a member of the Galactic Senate and secretly marries Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight. Anakin has dreams of Padmé's death, and his fear drives him toward the dark side of the Force, which results in his transformation into Darth Vader. Padmé eventually dies after giving birth to the twins Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.

Natalie Portman portrays Padmé in all three prequel films. The character also appears in animated series, novels, comics and video games.

Creation

Padmé is introduced in The Phantom Menace (1999), the first film of the prequel trilogy. She is mentioned briefly, however, in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, the final film of the original trilogy. In this film, Leia tells Luke that she has faint memories of her mother (Padmé), who turns out to be Luke's mother as well. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has explained that although he created a backstory for the mother while writing the original trilogy, it did not make it into the films. He wanted her to be mentioned in Return of the Jedi, however, because he was planning on introducing her as a main character in later films. When Lucas began writing The Phantom Menace, he envisioned similarities between Padmé and Leia, who he described as "the daughter who follows so closely in her [mother's] footsteps."