Wuthering Heights (2026) by Emerald Fennell is already becoming one of the most controversial literary adaptations in several years. In which Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi appear, Charli XCX is the composer, and the cast is cast non-traditionally.
What’s Making Headlines
- First trailer drops
Warner Bros. released the first official teaser trailer to the radical adaptation of Emerald Fennell of Wuthering Heights, with Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. The imagery borders on high intensity and borderline eroticism- full of mood-filled moors and emotional pictures. The movie is scheduled to be released on Valentine day 2026.
- Release date revealed
The film is set to open theaters on February 13, 2026 right on the weekend of Valentine.
- Creative decisions are controversial
Critics have been very critical of the selection of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, pointing out the differences to what Heathcliff is described as in the novel, which depicts him as having dark skin. The casting director Kharmel Cochrane justified the action and urged the listeners to appreciate reinterpretation. Equally, the age and appearance of Margot Robbie too had been put into question.
- Music by Charli XCX
Pop artist Charli XCX also produces original music to the movie, one of which is a featured track known as “Everything Is Romantic. Anthony Willis will score the movie.
- Stylistic reimagining
Critics also point at the stylistically rich manner in which Fennell had approached the Gothic romance: moody moors, costumes that are immoderate (oversized gowns, red-lens sunglasses, theatrical sets), and a new, contemporary take on the Gothic romance. Robbie, in turn, said that the movie was bananas and brilliant.
Cast & Creative Team Highlights.
- Director, Screenwriter, Producer: Emerald Fennell follows the successful Promising Young Woman and Saltburn with this audacious adaptation of the novel bearing the same title by Emily Bronté.
- Producers: Fennell, Josey McNamara and Margot Robbie (as LuckyChap Entertainment) – Robbie also co-produces.
- Cinematographer: Oscar-winner Linus Sandgren lends his visual lightness to the gloomy English moors.
- Music: Anthony Willis is doing the score, and it is supplemented by original songs by Charli XCX.
Principal Cast
| Character | Actor |
| Catherine Earnshaw | Margot Robbie |
| Young Catherine | Charlotte Mellington |
| Heathcliff | Jacob Elordi |
| Young Heathcliff | Owen Cooper |
| Nelly Dean | Hong Chau |
| Young Nelly Dean | Vy Nguyen |
| Edgar Linton | Shazad Latif |
| Isabella Linton | Alison Oliver |
| Supporting Roles | Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell |
Jacob Elordi was brought in personally by Fennell; he first signed without audition to take a break in acting.
It was filmed in the UK, with the beautiful scenes shot in the Yorkshire Dales on 35 mm VistaVision cameras.
Public & Critical Response: Casting Controversies.
Race & Representation
- His casting as Heathcliff, a white actor who is described as dark-skinned and appearing of gypsy descent in the original novel, has been criticized as essential to his position as an outsider, and to the way the book deals with the theme of racial and social prejudice.
- The casting turns the traditional dynamic in the novel on its head: actors of color play other parts (e.g., Edgar and Nelly), who are generally hostile to Heathcliff, which raises questions of the lack of racial subtlety in the story.
Age Discrepancies & Aesthetic Discrepancies.
- An emphasis has as well been made on age differences: Margot Robbie (in her 30s) plays a teenager, Cathy, and Heathcliff is said to be approximately 40 in the novel.
- One reviewer has called appearances by both Robbie and Elordi too ultra-glamorous (iPhone face) to this gritty Gothic story.
- Critics of the casting such as Clarisse Loughrey, writing in The Independent, called out that it was unclear whether anyone had read the book before making a casting decision.
Voices from the Internet
With social media and Reddit, there have been positive audience responses:
Heathcliff is a very complex character and by casting a white actor you only miss a great deal of his personality.
“She’s twice Catherine’s age. The casting of Heathcliff is bizarre also.
I am still angry that Dev Patel has not been cast as Heathcliff… What a missed opportunity!”
They have been typecast because they are sexy and they are popular but it still annoys.
These choices have been seen by many to value star power more than loyalty to the themes of the novel.
Official Response
Casting director Kharmel Cochrane justified the decisions as artistic interpretation: when there is no direct statement that a character is white, she auditions widely and picks what she thinks fits the part best. It is in line with the creative vision of Fennell: the interpretation of the material in a modern way, stylistically daring, emotionally charged, even erotic as in the trailer and the marketing visuals.
Summary Snapshot
- Team: A heavyweight partnership with Emerald Fennell, Margot Robbie, and solid creative executives behind images and sound.
- The controversies: The scandals of race, age and glamorization creeping in to replace the grit and identity politics of the very material Wuthering Heights is composed of.
- Sentiment among fans: Split—some wish it were a new, provocative version; many believe this casting is a loss of major themes and they should have used the chance to cast a BME in a role.
here is a close-up on the three things you requested–interviews, costumes, the soundtrack–twisting together what is out there to date:
interviews: what the team is saying.
- Margot Robbie has so far been the most quotable, joking that Fennell is so bananas it is great and brilliant in an MTV interview picked up by People (and repeated on social). It is the most obvious clue that the adaptation will drive tone and taste as Saltburn did.
- Press roundups mention the starry cast (Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif, Hong Chau), and the fact that LuckyChap has continued to collaborate closely with Fennell, although she has not yet done a deep craft interview that is available publicly–those will come closer to release. The piece in Vogue is a good capsule of all that we know, with dates and credits.
costume design: decisions, and why they are raising controversy.
- Uncredited: The costume designer of the film is listed as designer Jacqueline Durran (two time Oscar winner) in a production wrap post by the hair and makeup department-Siân Miller is the hair/makeup designer.
- Viral appearance: the fullness of Robbie in her white wedding dress, off-the-shoulder, corseted bodice, cathedral veil is deliberately anachronistic to the time of the novel (pre-Victoria). Vogue explains why that shape and white color scheme do not fit the c.1800 fashion, and that is why the decision was discussed all over the internet.
- Communities of fans and period drama forums have been debating the appearance and the verisimilitude of those pictures since the moment the pictures went live; sample discussions include everything form defence of a robust aesthetic idea to disappointment at fantasy-based costuming in a literary adaptation.
- Read, with Fennell, the dress perhaps foreshadows character psychology and tone, not museum-grade historicism–i.e. a conscious, maximalist signal suggesting the mythic/bridal iconography of Cathy more than the date-appropriate clothing. This is based on a previous assignment by Fennell, although the group has not officially debriefed this yet.
soundtrack: the way it’s establishing the tone.
As a soundtrack: Charli XCX will do original songs, and Anthony Willis will score the movie (also worked on Promising Young Woman and Saltburn). Those two combinations alone imply a clash of new pop volatility + romantic-gothic music.
Early marketing (1) goes directly into that mood: the original teaser is a remix of a Charli XCX song, Everything is romantic, which immediately shifts perspective to Brontes stormy love with a modern pop twist. Look forward to needle-drops to stab period mood on the same principle that Fennell had previously applied music to distort expectancy in his films.
Conclusion
Wuthering Heights (2026) by Emerald Fennell is already becoming one of the most controversial literary adaptations in several years. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in a star-studded cast, provocatively designed Jacqueline Durran costumes, and the modern pop vitality of Charli XCX over songs by Anthony Willis all conspire intentionally to twist Gothic tradition into something very bold and very divisive. The controversies relating to the tradition of fidelity, of exactness, of race, are in perpetual flux; but Fennell carries the stormy amour of the Brontes with him, again, losing a few of the purists.
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