Padme Amidala Star Wars Guide: Actor, Story and Fate

Padmé Amidala, also known as Queen Amidala, is the Queen and later Senator of the peaceful planet Naboo and the political center of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. She first appears in The Phantom Menace (1999), directed by George Lucas, when the Trade Federation blockades Naboo as part of a hidden plan run by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. The Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Queen Amidala and run the blockade with her aboard, then stop on Tatooine to repair their damaged ship.

Natalie Portman plays Padmé Amidala, including Queen Amidala in Episode I, in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), and she is billed third in each. Catherine Taber voices the character in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, directed by Dave Filoni, where the credit reads Padmé Amidala (voice).

Are Padmé and Amidala the same person? Yes, they are one character with a changing title: she is Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace and Senator Padmé Amidala in Attack of the Clones, where she returns to Coruscant ten years after the events on Naboo. The credit "Queen of Naboo" in Revenge of the Sith belongs to a separate role played by Keisha Castle-Hughes, so it should not be read as Padmé's credit.

Padmé Amidala's story arc runs from a besieged Queen of Naboo in The Phantom Menace to a dying mother in Revenge of the Sith, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in story order.

In The Phantom Menace, the Queen returns to Naboo and persuades the Gungans to join her against the Federation's droid army. Anakin Skywalker, hiding in a starfighter, accidentally destroys the droid control ship, which shuts the army down. Senator Palpatine is made Chancellor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi takes Anakin as his student.

In Attack of the Clones, the Senator survives an assassination attempt as she returns to Coruscant to vote on an army for the Republic. After a second attack, Anakin takes her into hiding on Naboo, where the two fall in love despite Jedi rules against attachment. She travels with him to Tatooine, where he finds that his mother has been captured and she dies in his arms. He kills the Tusken Raiders who held her, and he confesses this to Padmé. When Obi-Wan is captured on Geonosis, Padmé and Anakin fly to save him, and all three are condemned to die in an arena until a Jedi strike force led by Mace Windu arrives. The film closes with a secret wedding on Naboo, witnessed only by the droids C-3PO and R2-D2.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) comes third in chronological order, although it was released after Revenge of the Sith. Here Padmé investigates the kidnapping of Jabba's son Rotta and learns that Jabba's uncle Ziro is secretly working with Count Dooku. She exposes Ziro's betrayal, Jabba sees the truth, and the Hutts agree to a treaty that lets Republic forces use their trade routes.

In Revenge of the Sith, three years into the Clone Wars, Padmé tells Anakin she is pregnant, and he begins to have dreams of her dying in childbirth. Obi-Wan follows her to Mustafar, where Anakin, believing she betrayed him, chokes her. She gives birth to twins, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, and she dies.

Padmé Amidala's husband is Anakin Skywalker, whom she marries in secret on Naboo at the end of Attack of the Clones. He is the boy Qui-Gon Jinn discovers on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace, and he later becomes Darth Vader. Their marriage is the hinge of Revenge of the Sith, because his fear of losing her is what Palpatine uses when he tells Anakin that the dark side can give him the power to save her.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is the second major tie. He is one of the two Jedi who rescue her in The Phantom Menace, he is assigned with Anakin to guard her in Attack of the Clones, and he follows her to Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith. Qui-Gon Jinn matters in the first film, since he is the Jedi who frees her from the blockade and who meets Anakin.

Palpatine is the political relationship, and a dangerous one. He is Senator Palpatine when the Senate stalls over the blockade, Chancellor Palpatine from the end of The Phantom Menace, and the Sith Lord Darth Sidious throughout.

Her children are Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. Luke is raised on Tatooine by Owen Lars under Obi-Wan's watch, and Leia is raised on Alderaan by Senator Bail Organa, played by Jimmy Smits. The other bonds are lighter. Jar Jar Binks guides the first Jedi toward the capital before she persuades his people to fight, and C-3PO and R2-D2 are the only witnesses at her wedding.

Padmé Amidala dies in Revenge of the Sith shortly after giving birth to her twins, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, after Anakin Skywalker chokes her on Mustafar. The film shows her death at the same time as Anakin is sealed into the Darth Vader suit as Palpatine's apprentice, so the two events sit side by side.

After her death, the children are separated to keep them hidden from the Empire. Obi-Wan Kenobi carries baby Luke to Tatooine, and Bail Organa takes Leia to Alderaan, which is the setup for the original trilogy beginning with A New Hope. The surviving Jedi, Obi-Wan and Yoda, go into hiding, while Palpatine and Vader watch the early construction of the Death Star.

If you want the whole prequel sequence in the right order, our Star Wars movies in order page lays out both release order and chronological order.

Padmé Amidala's best moments are the ones where she acts on her own: persuading the Gungans to fight in The Phantom Menace, standing condemned as an equal in the Geonosis arena in Attack of the Clones, and her secret wedding.

The Gungan scene is a political victory rather than a fight, and it shows why the film bills her third even though the Jedi lead the action. The Geonosis arena works because she is condemned alongside Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi as a full participant, not as a person waiting to be rescued.

The quiet pick is the wedding with only C-3PO and R2-D2 watching. It is a small scene after a very large battle, and it makes the later tragedy legible. The most underrated moment is in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where she exposes Ziro's alliance with Dooku herself, which makes it the one film of the four where Padmé solves the plot.

Revenge of the Sith gives her the least to do, since the story turns on Anakin and Palpatine while Padmé mostly reacts, from her announcement of the pregnancy to the Mustafar confrontation. Her presence still gives Anakin's fall its cost. If you are new to the saga, start with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, then watch Revenge of the Sith for the payoff.