Heathcliff’s Race Reignites Debate as Margot Robbie Defends Jacob Elordi’s Casting

Another day, another classic getting the big, glossy remake. Emerald Fennell is tackling Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and while it does not hit theaters until early 2026, it is already a conversation magnet. The flashpoint: Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.

The casting fight: Heathcliff, identity, and Jacob Elordi

Heathcliff has always been a loaded role. In the novel, he is repeatedly marked as an outsider and described with historically loaded terms: people call him dark-skinned, a gypsy, a Moor, even a Lascar (a word 19th-century Brits used for sailors from South or East Asia). Bronte never nails down his ethnicity or origin, intentionally keeping him ambiguous while showing how prejudice and class contempt warp his life. Because of that, many readers read him as non-white and non-English. Which is why casting a white Australian actor has rubbed some fans the wrong way, and the word whitewashing is already in the mix.

Margot Robbie, who plays Catherine, is not having the skepticism. She told British Vogue she saw Elordi do the part and thinks people should hold fire until they watch the movie.

"I saw [Jacob Elordi] play Heathcliff. And he is Heathcliff. I’d say, just wait. Trust me, you’ll be happy. It’s a character that has this lineage of other great actors who’ve played him, from Laurence Olivier to Richard Burton and Ralph Fiennes to Tom Hardy. To be a part of that is special. He’s incredible and I believe in him so much. I honestly think he’s our generation’s Daniel Day-Lewis."

For context, Robbie also says Elordi is the reason this version exists at all: Fennell reportedly clocked him on the Saltburn set and instantly saw the same brooding figure from her battered Wuthering Heights book cover. That is a pretty wild origin story for a greenlight.

So... is this thing a romance or a shockfest?

Marketing has not exactly calmed the waters. One early image making the rounds is a close-up with a finger in Robbie's mouth. Online reaction went straight to: is this Wuthering Heights or just vibes and thirst? The book is a tragic tangle of obsessive love, revenge, and class rot, not a slow-mo perfume ad.

Robbie pushes back on the idea that the movie is going to be wall-to-wall raunch. Speaking to British Vogue, she says the film is provocative in places but aims for a big, old-school sweep. Think more capital-R Romance than shock value. She even name-checks The Notebook and The English Patient as touchstones and argues Fennell likes to leave audiences with a physical reaction, whether that is swooning or discomfort.

The essentials

• Title: Wuthering Heights
• Director: Emerald Fennell
• Cast: Margot Robbie (Catherine), Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff), Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell
• Release: February 13, 2026 (the plan is early 2026)
• Context on Heathcliff: Bronte keeps his origins deliberately murky; characters in the book call him dark-skinned, a gypsy, a Moor, and a Lascar, signaling he is seen as foreign and other. Many readers view him as non-white, which is why Elordi’s casting is drawing heat before anyone has seen a frame.
• How this version started: Fennell saw Elordi on the Saltburn set and pictured him as the Heathcliff from her old book cover, which helped spark the project.
• Marketing chatter: A sensual first-look image triggered chatter about tone; Robbie says the movie is more sweeping romance than pure provocation.

Bottom line: the debate over who gets to be Heathcliff is not going away, but the performance is the thing. We will see what Elordi and Fennell are doing with it when Wuthering Heights lands February 13, 2026.