In the Steamy First Teaser for 'Wuthering Heights,' Emerald Fennell Puts Her Own Spin On Emily Bronte

The first teaser for director Emerald Fennell's (Saltburn) adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights is here, and if it wasn't clear before now that this film was going to be....let's just call it controversial, the trailer immediately doubles down on its embrace of the story's completely unhinged feel.

The film stars Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) as tortured lovers Heathcliff and Cathy, and it certainly looks gorgeous. The teaser is full of windswept settings, lush (if largely strangely anachronistic) costumes, and plenty of Gothic vibes. It's also incredibly horny, featuring shots of everything from sensual close-ups of hands and fingers in mouths to multiple shots of Elordi shirtless and sweating around the moors. 

There are literal bodices ripping here, in case you were curious about whether Fennell was planning to abandon the novel's yearning subtext for something more...overt. 

Published by Brontë under the pseudonym Ellis Bell about a year before her death, Wuthering Heights follows the story of the dysfunctional and frequently destructive relationship between two families: The Earnshaws and the Lintons. The relationship between Earnshaw's daughter Catherine and Heathcliff, an orphan the family adopted at a young age, is the emotional linchpin around which the story's larger plot turns, and it's one of the most obsessive, romantic, tragic, and downright toxic love stories in all of literature. If the teaser trailer is anything to go by, Fennell's take on the story is prepared to wholly lean into everything intense and disturbing about this romance. 

There is no official synopsis for the film as yet, though Fennell has suggested in interviews that she plans to be at least somewhat faithful to the book's structure. 

Here's the novel's synopsis:

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.

Alongside Elordi and Robbie, the film also stars Shazad Latif (The Pursuit of Love) as Edgar Linton, the wealthy aristocrat who marries Cathy; Alison Oliver (Best Interests) as his sister Isabella Linton, who, in turn, weds Heathcliff (It's a Brontë story, just go with it); and American Hong Chau (The Night Agent) as the older version of the story's narrator, Nelly Dean.  

Adolescence breakout Owen Cooper will play the teenage Heathcliff, alongside Charlotte Mellington (Matilda) and newcomer Vy Nguyen as the younger versions of Cathy and Nelly, respectively. 

Wuthering Heights has already sparked a fair amount of discourse online, and this trailer is likely to add even more fuel to the fire, given its overtly steamy feel, and... let's just call it less than strictly faithful to the original vibes. Elordi and Robbie's casting has been a particular bone of contention for critics since the film was announced, given that neither of them especially resembles Brontë's physical descriptions of their characters. 

It's also fairly evident at this point that Fennell intends to ignore the school of literary thought that is most interested in exploring Heathcliff's mixed-race heritage. But this is hardly the only controversy that Fennell has found herself in as a filmmaker, and is unlikely to be the last.

The film is written, produced, and directed by Fennell. Saltburn studio MRC financed the project, and Robbie's Lucky Chap label produces.

Wuthering Heights will hit theaters on Friday, February 13, 2026. Until then, the 2009 miniseries starring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley is available on PBS Passport for members.