Here’s a hot take: Padmé Amidala is the most important character in the entire Star Wars saga. She served as both Queen of Naboo and a senator on Coruscant, she was a major figure in the small beginnings of the Rebel Alliance with Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, she married Anakin Skywalker (and played an unfortunate role in his transformation into Darth Vader), and she gave birth to Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, who bring down the Galactic Empire.
With such significance to the entirety of Star Wars, I can understand why some fans are speculating Natalie Portman (who played Padmé throughout the prequel trilogy) will someday return. Portman herself has expressed she would be more than happy to return, and I certainly wouldn’t say no to more Padmé, either. She was unfairly underutilized in the prequels. But realistically, I’m not sure how much more there is for Padmé to do. She gets more time to shine in the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and even has her own trilogy, written by New York Times bestselling author E.K Johnston. What else could you want?
That’s why I beg you to consider something a little different: Natalie Portman as Sabé.
If you haven’t read the Padmé trilogy, care little about background characters, or haven’t touched any of the Darth Vader comics, you would absolutely be forgiven for not knowing about Sabé. That’s a real shame, because Sabé is undoubtedly one of the most interesting characters in the Star Wars universe, playing a pivotal role in the lives of both Padmé and Darth Vader.
A quick history lesson: Sabé, who first appeared in 1999’s Star Wars: Phantom Menace played by Keira Knightley, is a handmaiden who served Padmé during her time as queen. Padmé was accompanied by four other handmaidens, who acted as decoys and teachers, while Padmé taught them her skills in return. All the handmaidens eventually became friends with Padmé, but it was Sabé who became her closest confidante, even long after Padmé stepped down as queen to become a senator. One of the most important aspects of the handmaidens is that they were chosen due to their likeness to Padmé, with Sabé in particular having the most visual similarity, which is why this feels like the perfect role for Portman’s return to Star Wars.
Sabé isn’t just Padmé’s best friend, she is also undeniably in love with her, to the point that Sabé is willing to sacrifice everything — including her own relationships — to put Padmé first. If you ever thought your situationship was bad, just know Sabé has it 10 times worse. One of the most monumental moments between the two women, is in the novel Queen’s Peril, where Sabé says she would rather be second to Padmé than first to anyone else. It’s this deeply unhealthy dynamic, driven by Sabé’s willingness to sacrifice her life without hesitation, and Padmé knowing that, despite her own affection for Sabé, she would be capable of asking her to make that sacrifice if necessary.
This devotion to Padmé makes Sabé an interesting figure to follow, and if Portman were to return, I’d prefer to see her take on a role that retains the face of Padmé, the character she originally played, but with a completely different physicality. It would be such an interesting premise and challenge that I feel Portman would excel at. One of my favorite roles of hers is from the 2010 film Black Swan, where Portman’s enthralling physicality as a character who sacrifices everything, her personality, her friendships, in order to succeed at a role, feels exactly what would be required to take on the role of Sabé. Even her role as Jane Foster in the Thor films allowed Portman to express her character’s own quiet moments of grief and trauma at her cancer diagnosis. If there’s anyone who is able to tackle hard topics and emotions, it’s Portman.
It helps that, unlike Padmé, there’s still plenty left of Sabé’s story to explore. Her post-prequels adventures get touched upon in the Darth Vader (2020) comics, where Sabé becomes hell-bent on finding out who murdered Padmé. She also helps assemble a team Naboo personnel and former handmaidens called the Amidalans to fight in Padmé’s name. Sabé eventually comes across Vader and discovers his real identity as Anakin Skywalker. At first she had wanted revenge but, at knowing his real identity, she instead sought to find ways to turn him back to the light, which is what she believes Padmé would have wanted. This doesn’t go so well, but the last time we saw Sabé, she was very much alive during the time period between The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi.
What would a Sabé during that time period be like? Or, to take it one step further, what would she be like in the New Republic era? Vader is gone, and so is Padmé. Where could Sabé go now? Would she finally be able to live for herself?
There’s so much Disney and Lucasfilm can do with Sabé, and Portman taking the lead would be two porgs with one stone. Portman gets to make a return, and fans of Padmé (particularly fans who perhaps haven’t read her trilogy or watched the animated show) would get a juicy steak thrown their way in a story following one of her closest friends who just so happens to share her face.
Will any of this happen? I highly doubt it, particularly with Disney’s reported pivot to trying to attract Gen-Z male audiences back into the fold combined with the unfortunate Star Wars tradition of worrying about having too many women involved in projects one after another.
Then again, never say never. After all, who would have thought we would get a prequel following Cassian Andor?
