Wuthering Heights, the latest film from director Emerald Fennell, released new footage this week, which has stirred up all kinds of controversy. Sparking trailer backlash for the 2026 movie, fans of Victorian literature, especially, have been incensed by the odd changes that the director seems to be inserting into this work.

There have been several adaptations of Wuthering Heights through the years. The 1992 adaptation, starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes, is generally considered to be the best, and it does the most comprehensive job in adapting the entire novel. Most other adaptations have tended to only cover the first generation of characters.

Characters like Catherine and Heathcliff and among the most celebrated in the Gothic genre. Set amidst an ambiance of darkness, Emily Brontë’s novel is a perfect choice for adaptation into a new film with big stars like Margot Robbie. However, this new version does not appear to be what most literature lovers want.

Wuthering Heights Looks Like A Drastic Departure From The Book

Wuthering Heights is a celebrated entry in the Gothic canon, and it tells the story of a strained affection between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. The novel is often sullen, with miserable characters who hurt one another, and is steeped in anger, jealousy, and cruelty.

There are many romantic elements in the novel, certainly, but it is far from a delicious, pᴀssionate affair like Fifty Shades of Grey. Instead, Wuthering Heights sees a relationship between step-siblings Catherine and Heathcliff evolve due to her being the only one to show him kindness. They do grow to love one another, but are driven apart by hierarchical social mores.

This enrages Heathcliff. Much of the rest of the story focuses on how his bitterness manifests, including to successive generations. Many of the novel’s themes are explored and resolved with the next generation, which sees connections between Catherine’s daughter, Cathy, and Heathcliff’s frail son, Linton.

None of these dominant ideas or details seem to be present in the trailer for Wuthering Heights. Instead, the marketing for the film replaces Heathcliff’s bitterness and anger with a brooding Sєxuality, annunciated by Elordi’s youthful good looks. The trailer focuses on style and a star-crossed forbidden romance, with the blasting music focusing on themes of love and affection.

Wuthering Heights’ Trailer Exemplifies Concerns Over Emerald Fennell’s Involvement

Emerald Fennell is a curious filmmaker who has proven herself to take a very style-first approach to her projects. Her 2020 hit Promising Young Woman had a strong and charismatic cast in Bo Burnham and Carey Mulligan, and initially seemed to confront issues with how insтιтutional powers cover up issues of Sєxual ᴀssault.

The ending of Promising Young Woman seemed to undercut her point, however, as its resolution depended on trusting in the insтιтutional powers of the police and the justice system. Promising Young Woman contradicts its own points, and Cᴀssie’s illogical actions only seemed there to generate trailer views.

Saltburn continued Fennell’s path of meaningless provocation. The film contained some strong images, including the salacious bathtub scene with Barry Keoghan, but it had little to say about class, desire, or virtually anything else it put on screen. With all of this in mind, many have been concerned about how Fennell would handle Wuthering Heights.

While it is difficult to know how the director will approach the larger themes, the trailer makes it clear that much of Fennel’s uncomfortable imagery will be used in the new film. Sweaty images are shown, including hands kneading bubbling bread and egg yolks, that speak to her sensibilities, zooming in closely and uncomfortably even on mundane images.

This intensifies with some of the Sєxual imagery. Fingers are seen penetrating mouths, both of other people and, in a concerning image, of a fish. These тιтillating images are already risqué for a green-band trailer, and are surely only a hint of what will be seen in the final film.

With fast-paced cutting that looks designed for a TikTok audience, and an original soundtrack featuring songs by Charli XCX, the new movie looks to put a very contemporary lens on this classic story. The focus of this marketing suggests a very stylistic reinvention of the novel, but some elements remain appropriately evocative.

The images and production designs often look artful and unique. Colorful backgrounds and gorgeous architecture seem to at least superficially acknowledge the Gothic elements of the novel. The film looks glossy, certainly, but updating it for the times in this manner does not need to take away from the efficacy of the book.

Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie’s Castings Are No Less Controversial After The Trailer

Catherine and Heathcliff are supposed to be nearly the same age, and they appear mismatched in the film. Margot Robbie was born in 1990, while Jacob Elordi was born in 1997. Despite his towering height, this gap is plain as day in the story, which sets an odd tone.

The two appear to share an uncomfortable chemistry in the promotion. While they both might be able to embody these roles successfully, it is hard to envision their pairing being effective.

In addition, the novel makes a number of allusions to Heathcliff’s race, which suggest that he is not a white man. The text is vague on this and leaves some ambiguity, but there are references to his skin being dark, as well as comparisons to Romani and Arab people.

The choice of casting the younger, handsome, Australian actor has rubbed some the wrong way, and the footage from the trailer has done nothing to ᴀssuage this.

Margot Robbie’s blonde, bombshell beauty may also be out of place, and she may be slightly too old for the role, but neither of these compares to the worries about Elordi’s casting. Fortunately, in films like Priscilla and shows like Euphoria, he has shown great proficiency at being charming and mannerly while simultaneously rageful and bitter, just like Heathcliff.

Can Wuthering Heights Turn Its Controversies Into Strengths?

Despite everything I’ve outlined here, I’m actually excited for Wuthering Heights. While there is still room for a definitive adaptation of the classic novel, the new film looks to instead tell its story with a subversive, contemporary edge.

I’ve found Fennell’s films to be fairly empty in the past, but her new work adapts a classic work of literature already jam-packed with ideas. Whether delving into focusing on concerns about love and obsession, social status, or belonging, there is great room for Fennell to be thematically faithful to the source material while injecting it with her unique energy.

Movies like 2023’s Emily have shown how having great flexibility with the Brontë source material can pay off with an excellent film of its own. While not a direct adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the Emma Mackey-starring film did a great job integrating elements of that story to tell something that is strikingly new.

The novel will remain a classic of Romantic literature, and this new film will not change that. Whether it is faithful is less important than whether it is effective in telling its story. There are already dozens of more faithful adaptations to choose from, including the 2009 Tom Hardy series, and this film will not erase them.

Still, it is uncertain if 2026’s Wuthering Heights will even be a good film. Egged on by the controversial reception of her last film, there is much discussion around Fennell wholly reforming this story to fit her sensibilities in uncomfortable ways. While there is certainly potential, the intended audience is not entirely clear.

Period dramas have an audience, and while they have tended to be more conservative, that has changed in recent years. Shows like Bridgerton, Dickinson, and The Buccaneers have done effective jobs in telling much more contemporary and ribald stories with the lush trappings and aesthetics of centuries past.

It remains to be seen if the audience for Wuthering Heights will be large enough for the film to succeed, but it is possible. Those of us who have great affection for the Emily Brontë novel, however, will likely have to leave our expectations at the door in order to enjoy this strange new offering from this controversial director.