“Wuthering Heights” To Upset English Lit Fans

Emily Bronte’s legendary 1847 novel “Wuthering Heights” has already countless screen adaptations to date.

Considered one of the greatest novels of English literature, the story concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons.

Specifically, it focuses on their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws’ foster son, Heathcliff, who grows close to the Earnshaws’ actual daughter, Catherine – the pair engaged in a toxic relationship throughout the work with moments of cruelty and domestic abuse.

Currently a new take is being filmed by “Saltburn” and “Promising Young Woman” director Emerald Fennell that sees Aussie actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi taking on the roles of Catherine and Heathcliff respectively.

That casting has drawn some controversy, not unusual considering many other adaptations of the work have had similar responses, and the movie’s casting director Kharmel Cochrane has spoken about that criticism.

Appearing at a Q&A session at Scotland’s Sands Film Festival (via Deadline), she says:

“There was one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot, but just wait till you see it, and then you can decide whether you want to shoot me or not. But you really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book. That is not based on real life. It’s all art. Wait until you see the set design because that is even more shocking, and there may or may not be a dog collar in it. There’s definitely going to be some English Lit fans that are not going to be happy.”

What the criticism is this time isn’t clear. Robbie is notably older than the 18 years that Catherine is in the books. Heathcliff is written as a “dark-skinned gipsy” but here is played by Elordi who is a white Australian whose mother was born there and whose father emmigrated to Australia from Basque Country (an automnomous community in north Spain).

It wasn’t until Andrea Arnold’s 2011 adaptation that a Black actor, James Howson, took on the role of Heathcliff in an English-language adaptation. Prior to that it was mostly white actors including the likes of Tom Hardy, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes, Ian McShane, Richard Burton, Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier.

“Adolescence” breakout Owen Cooper will play a younger version of Heathcliff in the new “Wuthering Heights” which is set to hit cinemas on February 13th 2026.

The post “Wuthering Heights” To Upset English Lit Fans appeared first on Dark Horizons.