On Feb. 13, 2026, director Emerald Fennell released her controversial adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel, “Wuthering Heights.”
This adaptation was immediately controversial after it was announced that Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi would star as Catherine and Heathcliff, with literary fans finding the casting very inaccurate compared to how the two are described in the novel.
Other controversies ranged from the wildly historically inaccurate costumes to the director’s choice to
place quotation marks around the title on various promotional posters.
While this is not the first time a classic novel-to-film adaptation has caused such a stir, this backlash stretches across so many different points it brings up the question of how much the film is taking from
the original novel at all.
You may think that people are just being dramatic. Sure, it might be inevitable that an adaptation based on a classic novel will cause a stir. But I’m not sure people are being dramatic enough.
Adaptations like “Wuthering Heights” are based on classic works of literature that have been loved by
readers for centuries. With a mass of fans so passionate about a novel, controversy is unavoidable, especially when it comes to how accurately the work was adapted onto the screen.
This does not mean that the adaptation has to be a complete copy and paste from the original novel. Many beloved book-to-film adaptations have not been entirely book accurate, yet the changes made do not take away from the source material but instead elevate it to a new medium.
For example, the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice” condenses the plot for a two-hour runtime, leading to inaccuracies on certain plot elements and character choices.
Despite these changes, the film captures the atmosphere and aesthetic that Jane Austen creates in her novel, leading to the film becoming one of the most popular adaptations of the novel.
Similarly, the 2011 adaptation of “Jane Eyre” presents a condensed version of the original Charlotte Brontë story yet succeeds in capturing the tone of the source material.
Compare that to the newest adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” which tonally contrasts the atmosphere of Brontë’s brooding and dark gothic novel with Fennell’s bold visuals and Charlie XCX soundtrack.
While the look of Fennell’s new film is striking, and every shot looks like a beautiful vignette, it bears no resemblance to its source material. Honestly, with so little of Fennell’s film fitting the original mold of the book, it makes you wonder why Fennell chose to make this an adaptation at all.
