Margaret Atwood Says 9/11 Terrorists Were Inspired by 'Star Wars'

Published Apr 10, 2018

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 have been surrounded with both solemnity and controversy as the world is still trying to make sense of it some 16 and a half years later. And just when we think we've read all the 9/11 theories that the internet can come up with, out comes yet another — according to veteran Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, we should blame Star Wars for the events on that fateful day.Atwood appeared on the cover of Variety , wherein she discussed the return of the hit Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale. Somehow, however, the topic shifted over to the events that took down the World Trade Center."Just to give you a very creepy feeling, there was an opera of The Handmaid's Tale that premiered in Denmark in 2000," Atwood said. "It started with a film reel going across the top of the stage and showing various things blowing up. And one of the things that blew up was the Twin Towers. But it hadn't blown up yet. They did the opera again, and they had to take it out, because it was no longer in the future. Does that give you a creepy feeling?"Then, seemingly unprompted, Atwood said that the terrorists behind the attack "got the idea from Star Wars."Pressed on whether or not she actually believed it, Atwood elaborated on her theory. "Remember the first one? Two guys fly a plane in the middle of something and blow that up? The only difference is, in Star Wars, they get away. Right after 9/11, they hired a bunch of Hollywood screenwriters to tell them how the story might go next. Sci-fi writers are very good at this stuff, anticipating future events. They don't all come true, but there are interesting 'what if' scenarios."Immediately after the Star Wars comment, Atwood revealed that she never suffers from writer's block. With an imagination like that, we can't blame her.