Fans baffled at Margaret Atwood's claim that 9/11 was inspired by Star Wars

Margaret Atwood, the writer of The Handmaid’s Tale, has baffled fans with her theory about the cause of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

She is claiming that the terrorists got the idea from Star Wars.

The writer was asked during an interview with Variety about a 2000 production, a year prior to the attack, of The Handmaid’s Tale on stage in Denmark.

The production featured a film projected on stage of various things being blown up, one of which was the Twin Towers.

Asked if the footage was ‘creepy’ in its inadvertent prediction of the event, she said: “[Terrorists] didn’t get that idea from my opera, don’t worry. They got the idea from Star Wars.”

Asked if she truly believed that, she added: “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, [the government] 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.”

She is likely referring to the mission Luke Skywalker and his squadron of X-Wing pilots lead to destroy the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope.

But we’re struggling to see the similarity, and the remarks sure have confounded fans.

Series two of The Handmaid’s Tale airs on April 25 in the US.

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