Wuthering Heights (2026) Is a Crime Against Humanity

It’s wutherin’ time.

The official trailer for Wuthering Heights (2026) starring Margo Robbie and Jacob Elordi dropped a few days ago and so far the most enjoyable thing about it is the Youtube comments section.

Based on what I’ve seen from the trailer and interviews with the creative team for this movie, it doesn’t seem as if the fans of the original book are wrong for collecting their pitchforks.

To start, there is contention about the casting. Margot Robbie is too old to play Catherine and the guy that plays Heathcliffe is too white.

It’s almost funny.

In the past, whenever an actor was woefully miscast for one reason or another, directors would use the excuse that they simply went with the person “best suited for the role.” Nowadays, they don’t even bother with subterfuge.

They will just come right out and admit that they literally do not care at all.

According to the casting director Kharmel Cochrane, there’s “no need to be accurate” with regard to the Wuthering Heights movie because the source material is “just a book.”

Reader, you’re probably thinking “Rachael, it was the casting director that said that, not the director of the film. Just because the casting director has a blasé attitude about book accuracy, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a bad adaptation.”

You are technically right in the same way that a tomato is technically a fruit.

However, the fact that Cochrane felt comfortable enough taking this stance and issued no clarification (none that I found, anyway) as to what she “really meant” likely means that the others working on this film are of a similar attitude.

In fairness it would seem that the director, Emerald Fennell, is a fan of the book. Allegedly. She read it when she was a fourteen year old girl and absolutely adored it. This makes perfect sense when you read the article interviewing her about the film because you realize she possesses the same level of understanding regarding the source material that a fourteen year-old girl might have.

She seems to gloss over the message of Wuthering Heights entirely and leans heavily into the sex appeal of the story. And by “leans heavily” I mean it sounds like she tried to make an expensive porno with only a tenuous connection to the classic Victorian novel.

From what I’ve read about test audience accounts, this is potentially the most uncomfortably horny movie ever created. I kid you not, in the first scene a man is hung from a gibbet and the audience, upon seeing his death, climax. As if that were not creepy enough, a nun proceeds to molest the corpse of the hangman.

I have heard descriptions of Liveleak videos that were less disturbing than this.

Why in the name of God would she think this visual is a good idea? How does this scene service the plot? No pun intended.

In all seriousness, I’m not a fan of Wuthering Heights the novel. I’ve never read it nor do I have any inclination to do so. No offense to any who might enjoy it but I’m not interested in reading about a dude who beat his innocent wife’s dog to death for no apparent reason and then bragged about it to the help. Yes, I know the characters being unlikeable is crucial to the novel. No, I don’t care. That being said, I can confidently say you don’t need to read this book to see that this movie completely misunderstands The Point. Doing a five minute Google search could tell you that much.

Or you could watch this girl’s breakdown of the book:

Wuthering Heights is not a romance, turbulent or otherwise, despite what many sweepers would have you believe. It is a gothic angst-fest about revenge, class, race, and rich people acting badly.

But if I’m not a fan of the source material, why do I care if it’s not well represented on the silver screen? For me it’s the principle of the matter. This is yet another example of Hollywood taking something timeless with a built-in fanbase and getting their slimy prints all over it all while cackling in the face of people that actually enjoyed the original property.

This is a phenomenon that has become so commonplace– so ubiquitous–in the current media climate that it should have it’s own Bingo card. Hell, I’ll just make one myself:

I have lost count of all the IPs I’ve seen that were irreparably damaged because the creative teams’ massive egos. Sometimes they pretend to be fans of the original, sometimes they don’t. Nevertheless, the results are always the same. They decide that their “vision” is more important than the original story or its characters. They don’t understand or care that they are playing with stories that have oftentimes transcended time and cultural divides. Stories that truly resonate with people and become a part of their souls.

Worse yet, as is the case with many of these crap films/TV shows, there are people actually willing to sweep for the movie and their awful creative direction. I watched a video on Youtube about the controversy and one of the comments literally stated “if you don’t like this movie, make your own.”

Make. Your. Own.

Yes, Reader, acquire millions of dollars and invest months–potentially years– of your life so you can have an accurate adaptation of a book you like.

Sounds reasonable.

I don’t believe that this movie will destroy Wuthering Heights‘ legacy, it’s been around for far too long to be crushed by one bad adaptation. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a shameless mockery of an enduring story written by a woman who died incredibly young.

Many such cases.