“Not My Heathcliff”: The Internet’s Wuthering Heights Debate

Who doesn’t want to make out with Jacob Elordi?

As viewers, we end up rooting for the overly attractive sexual deviant that Jacob Elordi embodies as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights. We almost put ourselves in Cathy’s shoes, waiting to leave Edgar and pursue Heathcliff. And honestly, that obsessive romance is exactly why the movie works.

Many people like to voice their opinion on whether Wuthering Heights is a love story or not. In my opinion, it is. In fact, I believe Wuthering Heights is a tale of when romance becomes overly obsessive, to the point that it is overbearing and destroys everything in its sight.

Wuthering Heights is a literary staple. As an English major, I cannot count the number of times I have analyzed, re-read, and interpreted this story by Emily Brontë. It is a destructive love story following the main protagonist, Catherine, or Cathy.

This year, Emerald Fennell directed and produced an adaptation of Wuthering Heights featuring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. Emerald Fennell is also the director of Saltburn, which is one of my favorite movies, and you can really see Fennell’s style when comparing the two.

Now, the outrage.

I have seen a lot of speculation and people being upset over this adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Yes, there are some things Fennell could have done differently, but a lot of people tend to forget that this is an adaptation, not a directly from-the-page-to-screen movie.

The 2026 Wuthering Heights is a good movie for its time and culture.

We live in a time where turning on the news leads to nothing good. We are bombarded every day with the worst stories, and sometimes it does seem impossible to escape reality. This is where books, movies, and things of leisure come in to help alleviate this feeling of impending doom.

When watching Wuthering Heights, it felt like an escape. And with it loosely being based on the book, the movie could be its own stand-alone story.

2026: the year of romance books, fanfiction, and wishing I was invited to a ball in the Bridgerton universe.

I was lost in the romance and left yearning to be loved in the same obsessive way.

One big dislike of the movie was the fact that Jacob Elordi was cast as Heathcliff. Heathcliff is established as a person of color in the original story, and that is why Cathy and Heathcliff could never be. Most of the discussion surrounding this choice is that Fennell “took the opportunity away from an actor of color.”

Another thing people tend to forget is that this movie is directed and produced by Emerald Fennell, not some big office representing Emily Brontë. Meaning the movie could have strayed a long way away from the original story. I will not comment on Fennell’s statement on how she interpreted the book, but I enjoyed her interpretation.

Though Jacob Elordi is not a person of color, his—should I say aura—made Cathy’s yearning in the movie just as powerful. Yes, it leaves out a key part of the story within the book, but on the screen, though this part is left out, the meaning of Wuthering Heights is still there.

Is Emily Brontë turning in her grave? Maybe so, but luckily there are many more adaptations of Wuthering Heights that follow the original story more closely.

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation is not the only adaptation that exists.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a wonderful story, truly, but in 2026 I believe Emerald Fennell did an amazing job pulling people into what Wuthering Heights is. She made it engaging and erotic, so much so that I have seen many clips on TikTok of people buying the book to read the real story.

If that was the goal, Fennell hit it out of the ballpark.

I may be in the minority with my opinion, as Wuthering Heights (2026) was rated a 2.8/5 on Letterboxd, but in my books this movie is a 10/10.

Leave that English-major mind behind and watch the movie for what it is, and I bet you’d enjoy it.