It’s “Wuthering Heights” week. That is: the week Emerald Fennell’s hotly anticipated adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel finally hits screens. If you’ve paid even a sliver of attention to the world of cinema over the past few months, you’ll already know that this is set to be one of 2026’s culture-defining moments.
Why? To start with, it stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the roles of Cathy and Heathcliff, two Hollywood juggernauts taking on literary icons. Then there’s Emerald Fennell, director of Saltburn, whose signature subversive creative vision will bring an entirely new perspective to the gothic love story. And finally, there’s Charli xcx, who’s ditched the club-rat chaos of Brat to record the film’s broody soundtrack. Needless to say, it’s a big deal – whether you’ve read the novel or not.
The film comes out this Friday, 13th February (ominous and romantic!), but it’s already been dividing cinephiles and bookworms fans for months, as we’ve been drip-fed behind-the-scenes snippets that reveal historically inaccurate costumes and surreal approaches to set design. It was clear from the outset that Fennell was never going to be a completely faithful adaptation. Now, we’re finally about to see whether her creative risk-taking pays off.
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
What is Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” about?
Based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel of the same name, Wuthering Heights brings to life literature’s most famous toxic relationship. The stars of the story are Cathy and her foster brother Heathcliff, who are raised together in an abusive household, the titular Wuthering Heights, on the Yorkshire Moors. Over the years, they form a close bond, one that’s only intensified by the forbidden nature of their relationship.
An ethnically ambiguous orphan, Heathcliff is something of a social outcast – not exactly marriage material in the 19th century. Instead, Cathy marries into a neighbouring family, the Lintons, and Heathcliff runs away in despair, returning years later with mysterious riches, ready to enact his revenge. When Cathy’s new husband, Edgar, banishes Heathcliff from their property, she’s so heartbroken she essentially goes on hunger strike, before falling ill while pregnant, dying soon after giving birth. Heathcliff is, naturally, devastated and begs Cathy to visit him from the afterlife until he can join her. Remember Kate Bush’s lyric “Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home, I’m so cold, Let me in-a-your window”? That’s about the subsequent haunting.