Between Harry Potter and Osama, ‘Eerie’ Connections

(Newser) – Now that Osama bin Laden has been killed, the inevitable question: When will the first movie about his death come out? In the Hollywood Reporter, Gregg Kilday makes the case that it might be as soon as July 15 ... when the final Harry Potter installment hits theaters. There have been some "eerie links" between the boy wizard's story and the al-Qaeda terrorist's journey ever since the first Potter movie came out just a few months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he argues.

Potter villain Voldemort is "something of a formless boogie-man—not unlike the mysterious Osama," Kilday writes. In 2004, a fan made a poster explicitly comparing Voldemort to bin Laden, and the book's evil Death Eaters to al-Qaeda. Similarly, President Obama's critics have sarcastically referred to him as "the anointed one," the same nickname given to Harry in the books. Some even believed bin Laden and Voldemort were both killed on May 1, but the most avid fans quickly pointed out Voldemort actually died on May 2. (Click to read about another odd Osama connection ... with Pope John Paul II.)