“The worst movie I’ve ever seen!”
“The most shameful adaptation in the last decade!”
“A disgrace to representation everywhere!”
The adaptation of Emily Brontë’s iconic Wuthering Heights has solicited a distasteful reaction from fans of the original novel, with some even going so far as to call it offensive. On the other hand, first-time viewers of this fantastic story have seemed to be completely engrossed in the film, claiming the erotic yet horrific narrative is the “hottest thing they’ve seen in years.” Did stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi bring a contemporary artistic aspect to the work, or was this simply romanticized erotica that spent its screen time withering away the original messaging of the book?
Wuthering Heights (yes, “wuthering,” not “withering,” despite how many will likely spell it on social media posts due to autocorrect unfamiliar with Brontë’s salacious novel) can be described as a Gothic romance with extremely dark undertones. The original novel frames the relationship between the two main characters, Heathcliff and Catherine, as a product of the abusive environment that envelops the Wuthering Heights manor, the home owned by Mr. Earnshaw, Catherine’s father. Earnshaw drunkenly takes in Heathcliff, the son of a layman in extreme poverty, after hearing the begging cries of his father, “to give his boy a better life.” Despite bordering on poverty status himself due to his escalating gambling problem (that produced nothing but diminishing returns), Earnshaw is an alcoholic who has no ability to differentiate left and right once at the pub, let alone take in a second child.
Quickly, a relationship akin to a trauma bond forms between the two, with Cathy seeking comfort in Heathcliff’s ever-changing moods yet constant presence, and Heathcliff finding a friend in Catherine. The development of this relationship from adolescence to adulthood is inadequately depicted and creates an unstable foundation for the time jump of around 6-8 years in the film.
Catherine Earnshaw is meant to be fifteen years old when the time comes for her to look for a proper suitor, as she eventually does in her new neighbor, Edgar Linton. This pursuit of a husband, and eventually her confession that she could never marry her pseudo-brother Heathcliff because of his poor position in society, is what ultimately pushes Heathcliff, played by Elordi, to disappear for years.
Margot Robbie, while a beautifully brilliant actress who has seen extreme support from audiences in many of her projects, such as Barbie (2023) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), seems to have finally received some sharp criticism that inevitably hits all women (and very few men) of Hollywood regarding her age appropriateness.
USA Today describes the reaction to this by recalling how fans “raised their eyebrows about Margot Robbie, 35, whose ill-fated heroine Catherine Earnshaw is just a teenager in the book.” Variety states that it contributes to the “fan outrage over the movie’s marketing, which has been sexy, sweaty and erotic to say the least.”
Fans of the original novel see Cathy the way Brontë intended: a young, naive, orphaned child searching for any means to survive, despite whatever connection she may have with Heathcliff.
Despite the aging of Cathy in the film rendition, the air of innocence that surrounds her character remains. This outraged fans even more, knowing that the likelihood of a 25+ year old woman not being married, let alone not being familiar with the concept of sex in the 19th century, was inconceivable.
Eventually, while Cathy watches a highly explicit sexual encounter between her housemates, Elordi pops into the screen, his body atop hers and his hand over her mouth and eyes. This transitions the sexuality of the scene from Cathy’s viewing of her servants to the tension between her and Heathcliff.
Fans angrily argued that it didn’t make sense to keep Catherine’s innocence and childlike curiosity while hypersexualizing the relationship between her and Heathcliff to commercialize the film. To make her naivety a huge part of the sexual tension between the two characters does not feel appropriate when such an age difference exists between the novel and the film.
While discourse about Margot Robbie and her inappropriate placement in the 2026 version of Wuthering Heights was a prevalent topic during the film’s release, Jacob Elordi’s casting for Heathcliff sparked even more fury from fans who are loyal to the character’s original depiction as a “dark-skinned” and “ethnically ambiguous” man.
One fan claimed Elordi’s casting destroyed “Bronte’s carefully-written, very deliberate ambiguity around Heathcliff’s background,” adding that “clearly deciding he must be explicitly nonwhite (or fully white) is to reduce and cheapen the work of a literary master.”
The race of Heathcliff seems to be very important to the oddity and ostracization of his character, both characteristics of which remain present in Elordi’s performance. A major scene in the film is Catherine’s embarrassment of Heathcliff, and her inability to marry him due to the social isolation she would receive due to his position in society.
Is it possible for her to be speaking just of his low-class, poor layman status? Or would the ostracization she faced be the systematically ingrained racial tensions in 19th century England?
Others believe that the description of Heathcliff as dark-skinned is akin to the use of the phrase “tall, dark, and handsome” to describe a sort of attitude and energy rather than categorizing him as a specific race. Bussy Keaton wrote on Twitter, “People have no concept of history lol. They read ‘dark’ or ‘brown’ in a novel by an English woman from the 1800s and think it means 21st-century American racial dynamics. Heathcliff was ‘dark’ because he’s half Romani or Italian.”
The odd placement of both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi representing these two iconic figures brings to light the role of fame and media in casting. Elordi’s career has taken off tremendously in the last few years, with roles in hit films such as Saltburn (2024) and Priscilla (2023). Elordi even won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2026. Robbie has also been steadily increasing her status with hit lead roles, and is now taking the backstage with production on many of her projects, including her production of Wuthering Heights.
But is casting those who are already loved and known always the route to go when creating an adaptation? Are these actors getting picked because of their talent and dedication to the role or because of the media attention and exposure they bring to the box office? Was the sexualization of a horrific story necessary or just a way to engage a new audience?
Whether you love it or hate it, the 2026 adaptation of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has become a sensation for audiences globally.