Theres no shortage of rumors circulating about Natalie Portmans potential return to Star Wars. Now that Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor have returned as their Prequel era characters Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively, there seems to be an even greater desire from fans to see Portman to reprise her role as Padm Amidala in a future Star Wars project. While most of the current rumors revolve around her making an appearance in Ahsoka season 2 as Christensen did in the first season, a new rumor suggests Portman was actually originally slated to appear in another Disney+ series in 2022. According to industry scooper Jeff Sneider in a recent episode of The Hot Mic podcast, Portman filmed scenes for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Apparently, she previously did shoot some small stuff for the Obi-Wan show while working on Love and Thunder, Sneider said, but it didnt make the final cut and my source wouldnt stake their life on [her appearing in Ahsoka season 2].If Obi-Wan Kenobi did film scenes with Portman, it makes sense that they were scrapped in the final edit. As wonderful as it would have been to see her again, Padms death in Revenge of the Sith means that these scenes would have been flashbacks, something the six-episode miniseries didnt have a ton of extra time for.That said, the return of Padm at some point in the future isnt such a far-fetched idea. In fact, Portman has expressed interest in returning in the past. In a 2023 interview with GQ, Portman said, I have no information on this. No ones ever asked me to return, but Im open to it.In some ways, it would make more sense for her to appear in Ahsoka. The show has used flashbacks both in the traditional sense and through the strange limbo space the World Between Worlds to show characters and moments from Ahsokas past. We saw Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) interact with Anakin, her former Jedi master, last season, so its not outside of this shows purview to find a way to bring back Padm from the past for new scenes.In the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Tales of the Jedi, Padm and Ahsoka are shown to have a close relationship. Just as Anakin is like a brother to her, Padm is like an older sister. After Padms death, Ahsoka even risks potential capture just to attend her funeral on Naboo. She not only had the loss of Anakin to deal with in the aftermath of Order 66, she had to deal with losing Padm too.While bringing characters back from the dead for the sake of nostalgia is something we truly believe Star Wars should take a step back from, we will make an exception to see Portman again, especially after her smaller, grim role in Revenge of the Sith. Just as Christensen and McGregor have had a chance to step back into their Clone Wars-era roles and build Star Wars legacy outside of the Prequel films, Portman should have a chance to do that with Padm. She is such an interesting character, and unfortunately the prequels dont entirely do her justice, despite Portmans best efforts.If Obi-Wan Kenobi really did almost bring Portman back, its a shame we didnt get to see it, even as deleted scenes. Hopefully if and when she does return to Star Wars, shell get the fanfare she deserves from Lucasfilm and fans alike.