Taika Waititi forgot Natalie Portman was in Star Wars

Before she played Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Natalie Portman was already an established star thanks to her roles in Léon: The Professional, Heat, and Mars Attacks!. The prequel trilogy certainly helped launch Portman’s career to the next level and there aren’t many who don’t recognize her as Padmé, except perhaps for Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi.

Natalie Portman returned to play Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder and as we know, Taika Waititi is also developing a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm. While speaking with Rolling Stone, Waititi confessed that he momentarily forgot that Natalie Portman had starred in an entire Star Wars trilogy.

Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said “I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?” She said, “I’ve been in Star Wars movies.” I forgot about those ones. [Laughs]

It happens to the best of us. As for Natalie Portman’s involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s been quite some time since her last major appearance in Thor: The Dark World. Taika Waititi explained that Portman was finally brought back due to fans wanting to see her character again. “It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, because the character was so great in the Jason Aaron run of Thor. Kevin [Feige] was already like, ‘I’d love to try and figure out a way to bring Mighty Thor into this film and bring Natalie back,’” Waititi added. “It didn’t take much convincing. She had never heard of that run of the comic, so I just dropped off some comics for her…. Anytime you ask, how did we cast so-and-so? We offered them millions of dollars and they said yes!“

Thor: Love and Thunder will hit theaters on July 8th, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray right here!