Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights is continuing to cause controversy following the release of the first trailer this week.
The film has already been branded ‘softcore porn’ by moviegoers, and now it’s being called out by woke social media users for its Caucasian casting choices.
Australian stars Margot Robbie, 35, and Jacob Elordi, 28, who are both white, have been cast in the lead roles as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.
In the Emily Bronte novel, Catherine is a teenager, while Heathcliff is racially ambiguous and widely considered to be non-white.
Social media has not been kind to the casting, with one user commenting, ‘Not to be that one friend who is too woke but bleaching the class and racial otherness out of Wuthering Heights to sell a horny whitewashed romance genuinely pisses me off.’
Another wrote, ‘I will be complaining about Wuthering Heights for the foreseeable future as the very existence of a white Heathcliff offends me.’
A third commented, ‘I don’t care if this is seen as an “overreaction” but this film has already filled me with actual rage LOL.
‘Heathcliff is not white (one of the MAIN themes of the novel), Catherine is supposed to be a teenager at OLDEST, and Wuthering Heights is not some booktok erotica bulls**t.’
Wuthering Heights has already been branded ‘softcore porn’ by moviegoers, and now it’s being called out by woke social media users for its Caucasian casting choices
Another wrote, ‘Margot Robbie 40 years old playing a character that dies at 18 … welcome back Evita 1996.’
A fifth commented, ‘The Wuthering Heights adaptation being an erotic drama directed by Emerald Fennell staring 35 year old Margot Robbie and pasty Jacob Elordi with original music by Charli XCX… BURN IT TO THE GROUND.’
The film’s casting director Kharmel Cochrane recently responded to some of the backlash during a Q&A session at the Sands film festival in Scotland.
Cochrane addressed concerns about both the Australian actors’ ages and Elordi’s ethnicity, by saying there is ‘no need to be accurate,’ because ‘it’s just a book’.
The casting veteran admitted that she’s currently catching a lot of heat for her work on Fennell’s adaption of the beloved classic novel.
‘There was one Instagram comment that said the casting director should be shot,’ Cochrane said, per Deadline.
‘But just wait till you see it, and then you can decide whether you want to shoot me or not. But you really don’t need to be accurate. It’s just a book.
‘That is not based on real life. It’s all art,’ she added.
Australian stars Margot Robbie, 35, and Jacob Elordi, 28, who are both white, have been cast in the lead roles as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff
Woke social media users are calling out the ‘white’ casting and have called Margot too ‘old’ for the role
‘There’s definitely going to be some English lit fans that are not going to be happy.
‘Wait until you see the set design because that is even more shocking. And there may or may not be a dog collar in it.’
The racy new version of Emily Bronte’s iconic novel is set to hit cinemas on Valentine’s Day, 2026.
Those expecting a faithful adaptation of the beloved work may be in for a rude awakening as Emerald’s upcoming film is said to lean into the ‘stylised depravity’ she has become known for after directing the 2023 hit Saltburn.
This was echoed after test screenings last month, with some attendees appalled by the film’s jaw-dropping opening scene, which features a public hanging that sees the condemned man ‘ejaculate mid-execution’.
