Q&As About 'Star Wars': What was known about Padme, Luke and Leia’s mother, prior to the release of the Prequel Trilogy?
What was known about Padme, Luke and Leia’s mother, prior to the release of the prequel trilogy? Before the run-up to Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace’s release in May of 1999? Certainly not much. And what little we did know was either wrong or was learned from tidbits in action figure packages in late 1998, when Hasbro added a Flashback line of Star Wars figures from the Classic Trilogy but with Lucasfilm-supplied nuggets of information about major characters from the upcoming film. For instance, a Power of the Force figure of Princess Leia Organa with Flashback packaging was my first inkling that Luke and Leia’s mother was Queen Amidala of Naboo and that Leia was not just royalty by adoption, but she was also royalty - of sorts - by heredity. Hasbro’s writer did not divulge the fact that on Naboo “royalty” was elected and wasn’t necessarily hereditary, but Lucasfilm kept a lot of pesky details about such things close to the vest. But before 1998, we
