Besides the "it was all in their head!" or everyone's dead!, the "it's a metaphor for 9/11!" is one of the more favoured lines for fan theories. It's been applied to the obvious (Cloverfield) and the less obvious (The Dark Knight), but we think that the comparison of the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks to Harry Potter might be our favourite. Not least because the theory originates from a 2011 Reuters article which boasts the marvellous headline "Eerie links between Harry Potter, bin Laden". Why, there are not only links between one of the deadliest terrorists of the 21st century, but eerie ones! Surely we cannot deny that this magical series of children's books might have something to do with 9/11 if the connections are so eerie? The theory goes that the pair are inextricably linked: the first Harry Potter film, The Philosopher's Stone, was released a scant few months after the attacks; Voldemort is a formless bogeyman that a whole nation fears, not unlike Osama bin Laden; Harry is often referred to as "the anointed one", a title right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh have used to derisively describe President Barack Obama; oh, and both bin Laden and Voldemort were finally struck down on the same date of May 1st. Well, actually May 2nd (and in 1998) for the Voldemort/Potter showdown, but close enough, right? And the film of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 came out not long after Osama carked it, so there's your big parallel!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
