Wuthering Heights Fans Trash Margot Robbie And Jacob Elordi's Erotic Trailer
The fresh take on the classic novel leans hard into erotic tension, and judging by the online outrage, not everyone is ready to see Robbie and Elordi go this far with Brontë's gothic love story.
Warner Bros. just dropped the first teaser for Emerald Fennell's take on Wuthering Heights, and the internet immediately did what the internet does: cheer, groan, and argue about Emily Bronte in all caps. The footage leans hard into the stormy romance between Margot Robbie's Catherine and Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff, with new Charli XCX music pulsing under it. If your first thought was, huh, that is a choice for this particular book, you are not alone.
The basics
- Film: Wuthering Heights, a new adaptation of Emily Bronte's 1847 novel
- Director: Emerald Fennell
- Leads: Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw, Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff
- Supporting cast: Shazad Latif, Hong Chau, Alison Oliver
- Release date: The studio is planting a flag on Friday, February 13, 2026. Charli XCX teased it for Saturday, February 14. More on that in a second.
- Teaser vibe: tempestuous, sensual, very romance-forward
- Music: brand-new tracks from Charli XCX, including cues in the teaser
- Poster: rolled out right before the teaser, featuring Robbie and Elordi in a close embrace against a stormy, gothic backdrop
Fans are split, and loudly
The immediate pushback from a chunk of book-first viewers is basically: please stop selling Wuthering Heights as a swoony love story. Multiple posts called out the teaser's steamy framing, with one viral reaction dubbing it fifty shades of Cathy and Heathcliff. Another person put it bluntly: this is not a romance, it is a Victorian tragedy, so maybe dial down the Twilight-on-the-moors energy.
Some responses zoomed in on the novel's uglier, thornier core: class cruelty and racial othering. Heathcliff is an outsider who gets dehumanized, and that damage fuels his self-destruction and revenge. One commenter pointed out that only the 2011 adaptation really tried to grapple with that lens, even if the script let it down; the performances, they said, still hit like a truck. Others flagged what they see here as whitewashing, plus some eyebrow-raising period costuming choices. The general complaint: reducing the story to cutesy forbidden love flattens the book into something it is not.
Not all doom and gloom, though. Plenty of folks are into the aesthetic. The cinematography is getting love, and a few viewers compared the vibe to those weird, sensual gothic thrillers that lived on late-night cable in the 80s and 90s. Some fans swear they spotted Ewan Mitchell in the footage and lost their minds accordingly. And yes, the Charli XCX of it all has people hyped.
"New original songs by me for Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. in theatres february 14th. happy early valentines
About that date
There is a tiny bit of calendar weirdness here. Warner Bros. is currently listing Friday, February 13, 2026. Charli is saying February 14. The simple answer: the film is being positioned as a Valentine’s weekend event. Expect Thursday previews, Friday opening, and a Saturday you-can-take-your-date post from basically everyone involved.
Bottom line: the teaser is purposefully playing up the torrid, tragic romance, which is a bold sell for a book famous for being, well, mean and messy. That friction is exactly why people are arguing about it. We will see whether the full film digs into the class and race undercurrents fans are asking for, or doubles down on the windswept passion that trailer is promising.