Literary fans rejoiced this summer upon the announcement of a new Wuthering Heights film adaptation to be directed by Saltburn’s Emerald Fennell. The news came courtesy of an ominous visual posted to social media depicting two skeletons embracing beneath the quote, “Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad.” This poster promised intense Gothic love down to your bones, a fitting design for an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. The visual, as well as Fennell’s involvement with the project, drew up both excitement and concerns for the release.

The visual, as well as Fennell’s involvement with the project, drew up both excitement and concerns for the release.

Fennell’s last two releases, 2023’s Saltburn and the 2020 thriller Promising Young Woman, faced criticism regarding their execution of theme and tone. Saltburn was thought to be hollow underneath its glittering dark facade while Promising Young Woman’s attempt to reverse violence against women fell flat. Despite this, Fennell has long been lauded for her artistic vision and the heightened aestheticism she brings to her projects, especially the Midsummer Night’s Dream-inspired bacchanalia of Saltburn. Across her filmography, Fennell has long prioritized sexiness and shock value over a real critique of her chosen subjects and it is these visuals (think Saltburn’s bathtub) that stick with audiences and generate much of the buzz around her films. It is through this context that readers and moviegoers alike remain skeptical of Fennell’s next project. 

It was not until late September that news of preliminary casting could let fans visualize any more than the initial skeletal poster. If internet discourse had been mostly excited if not casually skeptical before, the conversation turned into fury with the news of the film’s leads. Fennell announced that she had cast her Saltburn star, Jacob Elordi, as Heathcliff and Barbie herself, Margot Robbie, as Cathy Earnshaw. 

So, what exactly is the problem with this casting? To understand, it is essential to look back to the original book itself.

So, what exactly is the problem with this casting? To understand, it is essential to look back to the original book itself. In the first chapter of Wuthering Heights, the narrator Mr. Lockwood describes Heathcliff as “dark-skinned,” as do other characters throughout. Heathcliff is clearly established to be an outsider, different from both the Earnshaw family and unlike anyone in the moors, but whether this is a direct result of his race or not is left decidedly ambiguous by Brontë. Brontë additionally does not clarify what his race actually is, a decision that has puzzled scholars since the novel’s release. 

This new vision of the famous house set amidst the English moors will not be the first time it has graced the screen. The earliest adaptation of Wuthering Heights came out in 1920 at the height of the silent era and has since been lost. From then on, the novel has been adapted into countless films, series, theater, and opera. The 1939 adaptation in which famed actor Laurence Olivier starred as Heathcliff was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Brontë’s immortal tale is not new to our screens and is something that Fennell must grapple with in creating her vision. 

Most of these past film adaptations have given the role of Heathcliff to white men, but it was not until the most recent version in 2011, directed by Andrea Arnold, that cast Black actors Solomon Grave and James Howson as younger and older Heathcliff respectively. Giving the role to a person of color gives context to the abuse he faces at the hands of Hindley Earnshaw and redefines his role in the narrative. His ascent to running Wuthering Heights becomes more powerful while the way other characters make sense of his relationship with Cathy Earnshaw becomes framed by his race and not a general conceptualization of otherness. 

Giving the role to a person of color gives context to the abuse he faces at the hands of Hindley Earnshaw and redefines his role in the narrative.

Thus, while the casting of Jacob Elordi is not completely at odds with the text itself, most modern readers have brought Brontë’s descriptions of him into a modern context and often argue the story can only make sense if he is a person of color. His unknown origin and poor treatment from everyone around him are rendered unimportant when Elordi is Heathcliff. Now, Hindley hates Heathcliff because he’s…too good-looking? 

Alternatively, Robbie’s casting as the free-spirited Cathy is controversial for different reasons. While her age is never specified, Brontë provides readers with clues. Cathy is a few years younger than her brother Hindley, who is specifically mentioned as being 20 when their father dies. Thus, readers have deduced that Cathy was 19 when she died in childbirth in 1802. Margot Robbie is 34. With Robbie taking on the part, her early marriage to Edgar Linton, her tempestuous relationship with Heathcliff, and most importantly her premature death lose what makes them such fundamental facets of the story: Cathy’s youth.

While most of the online conversation about the upcoming film has been the expression of frustration surrounding these casting choices, few have tried to decipher why Fennell might have cast them in the first place. Besides the fact that Elordi and Robbie are among the most in-demand and successful actors of this generation, there is still potential for them to embody the spirit of their characters. Elordi is tall and imposing, possessing the essential brood required of the gothic antihero. Robbie, too, has the skills to take on Cathy’s wild spirit. Ultimately, judgment must be reserved for when the film is released. It is clear from this initial casting that Fennell is not going in Arnold’s direction, which leaves room for alternative interpretations of the text but also sidelines an essential facet of the narrative. Brontë’s avoidance of Heathcliff’s race, while confusing, allows for other interpretations and analyses to bring to light lesser-known stories. To simply give the leading roles to the two currently most popular actors in Hollywood is to again abstain from telling meaningful stories. 

To simply give the leading roles to the two currently most popular actors in Hollywood is to again abstain from telling meaningful stories.

It is always a challenge for directors to bring iconic novels to the screen. Capturing the essence of literary characters while maintaining a star-studded cast that brings in audiences is tough and has led to both beloved and abhorred castings. While Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen is known as the preeminent version, Netflix’s recent 2022 adaptation of another Austen novel, Persuasion, got negative reviews that mostly harkened back to the casting of American Dakota Johnson in the lead role.

Fennell has a similar struggle ahead of her, but looking at her past projects, there is still hope for the feature. Fennell has proven to be a director dedicated to style and heightened aesthetic and will undoubtedly bring gloom and intrigue back to the English moors. But in a media landscape over-saturated with white stories, it is disappointing to see a prominent female director sidelining the stories of marginalized identities. Heathcliff has always been an enigma of a character who was difficult to decode, but a new adaptation gives him the ability, like Kate Bush sang, to come home. And Fennell must grasp it.