Warning: This text accommodates potential spoilers for 2026’s Wuthering Heights.Emerald Fennell addresses the opportunity of a follow-up to her controversial new book-to-movie adaptation, which solely covers about half of the supply materials.
2026’s Wuthering Heights, directed by Fennell, stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, two of essentially the most well-known characters within the English literary canon. Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel recounts not solely Cathy and Heathcliff’s doomed relationship, however the lives of the subsequent era of characters. Nonetheless, most Wuthering Heights variations solely cowl the previous.
Fennell’s film is identical, specializing in Cathy and Heathcliff’s childhood and passionate emotions for one another — even after Cathy marries Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) — as adults. Thus, there truly is materials to show right into a sequel film. Nonetheless, in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan for Wuthering Heights, Fennell remarked: “Oh my God. Are you able to think about Wuthering Heights 2? Extra Heights, extra Wuthering.“
The Saltburn filmmaker went on to say: “The factor is that this guide is so dense, it is so difficult, and it is so epic. It takes place over generations.” She defined that the supply materials is so intensive that “it was all the time going to be both you make a miniseries, or perhaps a sequence of 10 episodes, the place you give every thing the eye that it could must be utterly trustworthy to the guide,” or you need to decide and select what to maintain.
“Otherwise you do what I’ve achieved right here and make your personal type of response to the guide and the issues that it made you’re feeling,” mentioned Fennell. “The issues that you simply want occurred or did not occur.” In earlier interviews, Fennell has mentioned how her Wuthering Heights is a private interpretation, not simply due to what it leaves out, however in how she depicts what’s included.
However in Brontë’s authentic Wuthering Heights, the story continues after the disastrous finish of Cathy and Heathcliff’s affair. Heathcliff seduces and marries Edgar’s sister Isabella (Alison Oliver), who later flees the abusive marriage and offers beginning to a son. Heathcliff additionally efficiently manipulates Cathy’s brother Hindley’s money owed to take management of the household’s property, Wuthering Heights.
After a violent confrontation with Heathcliff, Cathy dies in childbirth, survived by her daughter, additionally named Cathy. Ultimately, Heathcliff schemes to have his personal son (named Linton) marry the youthful Cathy, as Linton is Edgar’s male inheritor. Thus, after Edgar’s demise, Heathcliff controls each Wuthering Heights and the Lintons’ Thrushcross Grange by means of his son.
Nonetheless, having gotten his revenge on the Earnshaws and the Lintons for the abuse he suffered as a baby, Heathcliff is left with nothing. He ultimately dies as nicely, and his and Cathy’s ghosts are mentioned to hang-out the moors, whereas the youthful era (together with Hindley’s son Hareton) manages to seek out some peace as soon as they’re freed from him. However Fennell’s adaptation isn’t uncommon for leaving all this out.
Because it has largely labored for previous Wuthering Heights motion pictures, specializing in the unique Cathy and Heathcliff’s story has resulted in success for Fennell. 2026’s Wuthering Heights’ rotten Tomatoes rating at present stands at a positive 66%, and it’s projected to dominate the field workplace. Those that are criticizing the film take challenge with parts apart from the scope of the story.
Gregory Nussen’s Wuthering Heights evaluate for ScreenRant denounces it as “a toothless, whitewashed adaptation,” particularly alluding to the accusations of whitewashing by casting Elordi as Heathcliff. However Fennell merely does not appear to suppose she must make a sequel, as she, like many, is extra drawn to the primary a part of the story.
Wuthering Heights is now in theaters.
- Launch Date
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February 13, 2026
- Runtime
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136 Minutes
- Director
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Emerald Fennell