Margaret Atwood Stands by Comment That Star Wars Inspired 9/11 Terrorists

Posted by Jenniffer Sheldon on Friday, May 24, 2024

“The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood made waves earlier this week when she told Variety that she believes “Star Wars” might have inspired the 9/11 attacks.

On Friday, when asked about those comments at Variety‘s Power of Women event in New York, Atwood stood by what she said, adding, “Flying a vehicle into a target to blow it up, okay. ‘Star Wars’ is fiction so he gets out but Japanese kamikaze pilots did the same thing, so it’s not a new thing and it’s not an original thought with me. I just thought people already knew that, but I guess some people are so young that they forgot about that.”

Margaret Atwood stands by her comment that "Star Wars" inspired 9/11 terrorists (Watch) https://t.co/9Ajg6XRPqi pic.twitter.com/COCIsN5c5M

— Variety (@Variety) April 13, 2018

The Canadian author is being honored at the luncheon, and in a sit-down this week for the Power of Women issue, she talked about how an opera of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which premiered in Denmark in 2000, included a scene that showed the Twin Towers in New York blowing up. Atwood said that gave her “a creepy feeling,” but added the 9/11 terrorists “didn’t get that idea from my opera, don’t worry. They got the idea from ‘Star Wars.'”

When pressed, she elaborated, “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.”

Atwood is being recognized at the Power of Women event for her work with AfterMeToo, which aims to continue the work done by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

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