What’s new and when it arrives
Two Australian stars are stepping into literature’s stormiest romance: Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights. Warner Bros. has set the US and UK theatrical release for February 13, 2026—positioning the film right before Valentine’s weekend, but with a dark twist.
This project did not quietly slip into the market. It triggered a studio bidding war, with Warner Bros. winning out in large part because it promised a full theatrical rollout. In an era where many prestige dramas are shuffled to streaming, that commitment stands out. The timing suggests counter-programming: a Gothic love story that is anything but sweet.
A first teaser landed on September 3, 2025. It leans into atmosphere—wind over the moors, creaking floorboards, flickers of candlelight, and the kind of bruised skyline you remember long after the shot cuts. There are quick flashes of the central pair, but the mood does most of the heavy lifting. No spoilers, just tone: raw, elemental, and tense.
Here is the cast as it stands:
- Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw
- Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff
- Shazad Latif as Edgar Linton
- Hong Chau as Nelly Dean
- Alison Oliver as Isabella Linton
- Charlotte Mellington as Young Catherine
- Owen Cooper as Young Heathcliff
- Vy Nguyen as Young Nelly Dean
Fennell writes, directs, and produces. Production is backed by Lie Still, LuckyChap Entertainment—Robbie’s company—and MRC Film, reuniting Fennell with a financier behind her previous work. The movie was captured in VistaVision, a horizontal 35mm format famous for its crisp detail and wide frame. It is a choice that usually signals big, textured images and room for landscapes to breathe—useful when your story lives and dies on the mood of open country and isolated houses.
The film promises to stick close to Emily Brontë’s original spine: obsessive love, class pressure, cruelty that ricochets across generations, and the need to get even. The book’s narrator, Nelly Dean, is a crucial presence in that world, and Hong Chau’s casting hints at an adaptation that respects the novel’s layered vantage point rather than flattening it to a single, tragic couple.
Why this team and material matter
Emerald Fennell has a knack for turning desire and power into sharp drama. Her debut, Promising Young Woman, won the Oscar for Original Screenplay. Saltburn took a darker, queasier route through privilege and obsession. Both films play with tone—gorgeous surfaces, ugly impulses. On paper, that toolkit fits Brontë’s windswept, unforgiving universe.
Robbie arrives with both star power and producer muscle. After Barbie and I, Tonya, she has shown she can swing between pop phenomenon and character-first drama, and she has used LuckyChap to push projects driven by complex women. Catherine is not a passive heroine; she is selfish, wild, and trapped by her era. It is the sort of role that can turn a costume drama into a character study.
Elordi’s rise has been quick and deliberate. Euphoria put him on the map; Priscilla and Saltburn showed he can do menace, fragility, and charisma without blinking. Heathcliff demands all three. He is a survivor and an avenger, but also a man who never escapes his first wound. If Elordi gets the contradictions right, the film will have its heart—and its knife.
The supporting cast is stacked with actors who specialize in nuance. Hong Chau (The Whale, The Menu) can convey a full moral weather system with a look. Shazad Latif brings warmth and gravity to men who believe in order; Edgar Linton needs both. Alison Oliver, part of a new wave of Irish talent, has the steel to play Isabella’s transformation rather than just her suffering. The younger performers suggest the film will give real space to childhood scenes, which are essential to the story’s emotional boomerang.
Shooting in VistaVision is not a nostalgia trip. The format was a Hitchcock favorite and later a mainstay for visual-effects work because of its resolution. Used for a drama like this, it indicates an appetite for scale: the moor as a character, the house as a maze, faces framed against sky and stone. Expect a film that lets you feel the wind—without leaning on digital gloss.
Release strategy tells its own story. Mid-February can be a smart slot for adult dramas that want time to build word of mouth. It avoids the crush of holiday awards films and leaves a long runway if the movie catches fire. With a director who already has Academy pedigree, you have to assume this one will aim for a fall-festival premiere in 2025 to set the tone, even if the studio has not confirmed it yet.
Any new adaptation lives under the shadow of earlier versions. William Wyler’s 1939 film defined one strain of romantic fatalism. The 1992 version with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes dug into the novel’s full sweep. Andrea Arnold’s 2011 take stripped it down to mud, weather, and instinct. Fennell’s likely lane is psychological and sensorial: lush images, ruthless choices, and characters who do not ask for sympathy before they act.
What will fans look for? Whether the story stops at the first generation or follows it into the second. How angry and unpredictable Catherine gets to be. If Heathcliff is allowed to be both cruel and genuinely wounded. And whether Nelly’s perspective acts as a moral compass or something more slippery.
On the business side, Warner Bros. leaning in on a theatrical-first release is the news behind the news. It signals confidence that young audiences will show up for a classic when the packaging is bold—especially with Robbie and Elordi above the title. It also gives the movie a chance to play in premium formats that can show off the negative’s detail and that wide VistaVision frame.
Open questions remain. There is no rating yet. No confirmed composer, though a score can make or break Gothic drama. No word on international rollout beyond the US and UK date, though a global push feels inevitable. Expect a full trailer closer to year’s end, once awards-season campaigns set the conversation and the studio can position this as next year’s event romance for people who do not like tidy love stories.
For now, the teaser’s promise is simple: a classic told with bite, a filmmaker who likes to press on bruises, and two leads who know how to hold a camera’s stare without blinking. If Fennell can balance passion with cruelty—and let the moors swallow you whole—this could be the adaptation that lives alongside the novel rather than under it.
