Remember When Doctor Who Predicted Harry Potter’s Future Twice in One Episode?

Doctor Who has foretold plenty of things over the years – from Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power to the appearance of the NFTs, the show has proven to be ahead of its time. What most people don’t remember is that Doctor Who has basically given away the plot of the last Harry Potter book.

In the 2007 episode, The Shakespeare Code, the Doctor takes Martha to see Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost live in 1599. As usual, they end up getting in trouble – this time, with the Carrionites, who are basically the prototypes for witches at the time.

At one point, the Doctor and Martha are lying in bed and talking about the upcoming sequel to the play, which isn’t supposed to exist. Martha comments that their conundrum is something straight out of the Harry Potter universe, and the Doctor tells her, “Wait till you read book 7. Oh, I cried.”

Needless to say, the Doctor couldn’t be more right! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had everyone bawling their eyes out. Incidentally, the episode came out in April, and the book was released in July!

However, this wasn’t the only time Doctor Who foreshadowed the events of the final book. Later on, the Doctor, Martha, and Shakespeare are trying to find the words to banish the Carrionites back to where they came from. Sure, William does most of the work, but Martha hilariously ends his “spell” with Expelliarmus at the very end.

The Disarming Charm has been vital to Harry Potter’s story from the beginning, and it has proven to be just as important in the last book. Expelliarmus is Harry’s signature spell – it is how he gets recognized by Voldemort and the Death Eaters at the beginning of the book, and it is what he uses against the Dark Lord in their final battle. Why learn so many spells when you can just perfect one?

That’s the story of how Doctor Who has managed to spoil the ending of Harry Potter twice in the same episode. Coincidence or timey-wimey?