Fans Have Mixed Reactions to New 'Wuthering Heights' Trailer After Backlash

13 Nov 2025, 19:12 · The Fresno Bee

Catherine from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights notably proclaimed that her and Heathcliff's souls "are the same," but it seems not every fan feels the same about Emerald Fennell's adaptation.

A full trailer for the upcoming Wuthering Heights film dropped on Thursday, November 13.

"Inspired by the greatest love story of all time," an Instagram caption read. "Wuthering Heights only in theaters this Valentine's Day."

The tagline itself raised eyebrows.

"Calling Wuthering Heights the greatest love story ever is WILD," one fan wrote via Instagram comment, with another adding, "Calling it ‘the greatest love story of all time' is so funny man everyone in Wuthering Heights hates each other."

A third, however, pointed out, "Why are these people confused by the greatest love story part? It IS the greatest love story of all time, and like all great love stories in literature it is doomed. BTW the trailer looks fantastic. So excited."

Brontë published Wuthering Heights in 1847, chronicling the fictional tumultuous love story of foster siblings Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. After Catherine eventually married someone else, Heathcliff embarks on a path of revenge and destruction. Oscar-winning director Fennell, 40, cast Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff, respectively, in her upcoming 2026 adaptation.

Following Thursday's trailer release, some fans expressed how much they positively loved the first look at the onscreen romance.

"I still don't think Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is a straight up adaptation," one X user wrote. "But, also as a short girl, Jacob Elordi lifting Margot Robbie up to his level by her corset absolutely f***ed me up!!!!!!!!!!!"

A fifth social media user was blown away by the technical aspects of the film.

"Hate how stunning the visuals are for Wuthering Heights," the X user wrote. "If there's one thing Emerald Fennell has really figured out, it is great cinematography, actually."

Wuthering Heights previously sparked backlash after fans criticized the Elordi's casting in particular.

"He looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff in the first book that I read," Fennell said during England's Brontë Women's Writing Festival in September. "It was so awful because I wanted to scream. Not the professional thing to do, obviously."

When Fennell set out to adapt a new version of the film, she believed that Elordi, 28, "had the thing" about him to play Heathcliff.

"He's a very surprising actor," Fennell said, also defending the Euphoria star's age gap with Robbie, 35. "She is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything. I think honestly she could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind, and that is who Cathy is to me. Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go. So it needed somebody like Margot, who's a star, not just an incredible actress - which she is - but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds."

Warner Bros. Pictures

Elordi, for his part, has been on board with Fennell's vision from the beginning.

"Emerald's a genius," Elordi, who previously starred in Fennell's Saltburn, told The Wall Street Journal in September. "I think her cinema is some of the most important being made."

Wuthering Heights hits theaters February 13, 2026.

This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 11:12 AM.