The Heathcliff Controversy: How Margot Robbie’s Latest Production Became 2026’s Most Polarizing Love Story
Darlings, brace yourselves. Warner Bros. has just unleashed the full-length trailer for what is undoubtedly shaping up to be the cinematic event of Valentine’s Weekend 2026, and let me tell you—Emily Brontë’s gothic masterpiece has never looked quite so… intoxicating.
Writer-director Emerald Fennell, the Oscar-winning auteur behind Promising Young Woman and the deliciously scandalous Saltburn, is bringing her signature provocative lens to the 1847 literary classic, and the result is equal parts breathtaking and controversial. Starring the luminous Margot Robbie as the tempestuous Catherine Earnshaw and the smoldering Jacob Elordi as the brooding Heathcliff, this adaptation promises to redefine period romance for a generation raised on Bridgerton’s unapologetic sensuality.
The newly released footage, set to Charli xcx’s hauntingly hypnotic “Chains of Love”—composed exclusively for the film from her Wuthering Heights album—is a masterclass in atmospheric eroticism. Opening with traditional establishing shots of the windswept West Yorkshire moors, Fennell quickly subverts expectations. What follows is a fever dream of tactile imagery: hands kneading bread with almost pornographic intensity, fingers trailing through egg yolks, Elordi’s glistening bare torso as he handles hay in candlelit stables, and yes, the now-infamous moment where Robbie provocatively places her fingers in Elordi’s mouth.
This is Brontë’s tale of forbidden passion—the story of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationship with foster son Heathcliff—reimagined through Fennell’s distinctly modern, unabashedly sexual gaze. Bodies being unlaced and laced again. Horse tack transformed into implements of desire. And naturally, because this is Fennell, a fish makes a memorable appearance.
The director reunites with Robbie’s production company LuckyChap for their third collaboration, following their previous successes. Robbie doesn’t just star; she produces, cementing her position as one of Hollywood’s most formidable creative forces.
However, the project hasn’t been without its share of controversy. Fennell faced significant backlash for casting the white Elordi as Heathcliff, a character Brontë described as “dark-skinned” and using period terms suggesting Indian or Southeast Asian heritage. Critics argue that this casting choice erases the novel’s complex examination of racialized and colonial dynamics—themes integral to understanding Heathcliff’s abuse and marginalization within his adopted family, beyond mere class distinctions.
Additional criticism stems from Fennell’s characteristically salacious approach to material that many consider sacred, particularly since this isn’t positioned as a contemporary reimagining but rather a period piece.
Set to premiere in U.S. theaters February 13, 2026, Wuthering Heights promises to be the most talked-about—and perhaps most divisive—romantic epic in recent memory. One thing’s certain: the moors have never looked quite so steamy.
