Superheroes Meets Wizards: Similarities Between “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Harry Potter”
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.
Avengers: Infinity War opened in theaters across the world last week and has already been a tremendous hit. The story and effects are incredible, making it easy to see why its opening weekend broke records. At the time, I was completely swept up by the plot and action. However, looking back, I can’t help but spot several similarities between the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the Harry Potter franchise.
Avengers: Infinity War is the 19th movie in the MCU and it has built on some of the storylines from the previous films. The very first Infinity Stone we saw was the Tesseract way back in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. Likewise, J.K. Rowling first introduced Horcruxes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. On both occasions, the protagonists did not fully understand the significance of the objects, and we were unaware of how big these items would be to the overall plot later on.
Even the characters’ main motivations in the plots are similar. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the trio tries to find the Stone before it can be used to bring Voldemort back. Later on in the series, Harry, Ron, and Hermione want to find Voldemort’s Horcruxes and then destroy them so Voldemort can die for good. The superheroes also want to find the Infinity Stones and either protect them or crush them so Thanos can’t get use them to kill off half the universe’s population.
In order to find the Horcruxes/Infinity Stones, the protagonists split up. In Infinity War, the characters are in random groups and scattered all over the universe. Half of the Guardians are together and the other half are either with Thor or Thanos for the majority of the movie. Even the Earthlings are in another country or on another planet, separated from their loved ones. Harry, Ron, and Hermione might have been together for the majority of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but they were separated from their friends in Hogwarts.
Both the Harry Potter series and Infinity War had very cool gadgets or magic as weapons. Whether it’s Iron Man’s super suit or Doctor Strange’s mythical magic, the protagonists have the power to defend themselves and fight for their world. The wizarding equivalent would be the wands and the Hallows in the series. The most powerful wand in the wizarding world is the Elder Wand. In Infinity War, the most formidable device against the gauntlet of Infinity Stones is Thor’s new weapon, Stormbreaker. Stormbreaker did manage to defeat many of Thanos’s creatures and almost Thanos himself. If only Thor went for the heart instead of the head, maybe then Thanos would actually have been defeated.
Instead, Thanos harnessed all six Infinity Stones, even using the Time Stone to turn back time to get back the Mind Stone. The Time Stone and the Time-Turner have similar functions. In fact, there have been theories that the remaining Avengers will use the Time Stone to save their deceased friends’ lives, just like Hermione and Harry did in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
We can’t leave out all the deaths. Both Deathly Hallows and Infinity War had high death counts. They started with murder (Charity Burbage in Harry Potter and both Loki and Heimdall in Infinity War) and ended with murder.
Even the deaths in Infinity War resemble the way Voldemort dies at the end of the franchise.
Of course, Infinity War is only one movie in the entire MCU. There are still two more movies before Avengers 4 comes out. Who knows what will happen to the superheroes in that film?
