Wuthering Heights trailer: Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi ignite Emerald Fennell’s gothic romance
First look: a fierce, windswept Wuthering Heights
The first trailer for Emerald Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights doesn’t tiptoe around the book’s stormy heart. It dives straight into the fever that binds Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, played by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The clip, released September 3, 2025, flashes between wind-lashed hills and candlelit rooms, with the pair locked in an attraction that feels less like a romance and more like a force of nature.
One line lands like a warning and a promise: “I can follow you like a dog to the end of the world.” The trailer lingers on that kind of devotion—hungry, angry, and reckless. Fennell leans into the damage love does here, not just the rush. You can feel how this relationship scorches everyone around it.
Robbie, an Academy Award and BAFTA nominee, plays Catherine as someone who wants everything—status, safety, and the wild pull she can’t deny. Elordi, a BAFTA nominee, brings a brooding heat to Heathcliff, the outsider who refuses to leave the margins others assign him. Their chemistry carries the footage, but the small details do their own work: heavy skirts dragging through mud, doors slamming against moor winds, faces half-lit by fire.
Fennell, who both wrote and directed, isn’t shy about tone. After Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, she’s known for pushing characters into uncomfortable places and holding the shot. That instinct fits Brontë’s novel, which was never sweet or safe. The trailer suggests a film that honors the book’s rage and obsession, rather than sanding it down to fit a Valentine’s bow.
The supporting cast is stacked: Oscar nominee Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, BAFTA winner Martin Clunes, and Ewan Mitchell. The teaser keeps their roles mysterious but positions them as witnesses, judges, and victims of Catherine and Heathcliff’s pull. In a story this charged, every bystander pays a price.
The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures and MRC presentation, produced as a Lie Still & LuckyChap Entertainment Production. Fennell produces alongside Josey McNamara and Robbie, with Sara Desmond and Oscar nominee Tom Ackerley on board as executive producers. It’s a project built inside the LuckyChap orbit, which has made a habit of pairing big stars with directors who go bold rather than safe.
Visually, the trailer bets on contrast: the moors stretched like a threat, interiors claustrophobic and hot. You see hands gripping bannisters, bodies pressed against stone, and plenty of wind that feels personal. The repeated motif of “falling” in love shows up in the audio and the edit, echoing the book’s idea that love here is a cliff, not a cushion.
Release timing is deliberate. Wuthering Heights opens February 13, 2026, with international dates starting February 11. It’s a Valentine’s launch, sure, but the movie aims at couples who prefer their love stories jagged. This isn’t chocolates-and-roses romance; it’s love with teeth.
Why this adaptation could hit different
Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights in 1847 under the name Ellis Bell, and the book still shocks because it refuses to behave. It’s about class, cruelty, desire, and what happens when two people would rather burn down their world than live apart. Every screen version wrestles with the same question: how much of that ferocity do you keep? From the trailer, Fennell’s answer looks like “all of it.”
Modern audiences know Robbie can switch from glamorous to feral in a blink, and that’s useful for Catherine, who keeps choosing against her own happiness. Elordi’s recent run has built a persona that’s both charismatic and unsettling. As Heathcliff, that mix pays off—he’s the wounded stray and the danger at the door.
There’s also the practical challenge of the novel’s structure: shifting timelines, a story told through multiple narrators, and a second generation that mirrors the first. The trailer doesn’t give away how Fennell handles that. It hints at fever and fallout, not logistics. Expect the adaptation to compress, merge, and streamline—most do—while holding onto the core: love as possession, love as ruin.
The industry backdrop matters. Studios keep circling classic lit because it sells across borders and ages. But the adaptations that break through usually bring a sharp point of view: think period settings shot with modern urgency, dialogue that bites, and characters who feel contemporary without sounding anachronistic. Fennell’s sensibility—stylish frames, brash emotion, and moral mess—lines up with that trend.
Marketing-wise, the first look plants three flags: star power, heat, and mood. Robbie and Elordi are the hook; the intimacy and jealousy are the sizzle; the moors are the brand. Expect the next wave of materials to map out the larger ensemble and tease the class conflict that drives the plot. If the campaign keeps the tone this intense, the movie could play both to date-night crowds and to fans of darker prestige drama.
Key details at a glance:
- Title: Wuthering Heights
- Leads: Margot Robbie (Catherine Earnshaw), Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff)
- Writer-Director: Emerald Fennell
- Producers: Josey McNamara, Emerald Fennell, Margot Robbie
- Executive Producers: Sara Desmond, Tom Ackerley
- Studios: Warner Bros. Pictures and MRC; a Lie Still & LuckyChap Entertainment Production
- Release: Theatrical on February 13, 2026 (international from February 11)
One more thing the trailer makes clear: this world is beautiful and bleak at once. The moors look endless, but the people are boxed in by rules—money, family, rank. That tension is the spark. If the feature holds the line the teaser sets, this isn’t a prettied-up period piece. It’s a story about love that takes what it wants and leaves scars where it passes.