Wuthering Heights: Emerald Fennell's provocative adaptation sets Valentine's Day 2026 release

A Gothic classic gets a daring, date-night release

A windswept Gothic romance opening on Valentine's Day sounds like a studio dare. Warner Bros. is betting that Emerald Fennell can turn Emily Bront's 1847 novel into an event movie, steering a bold, erotic, psychological spin on Wuthering Heights into theaters on February 14, 2026. Margot Robbie leads as Catherine Earnshaw, with Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, in what looks like Fennell's most ambitious film yet.

Fennell is writing, directing, and producing, partnering with Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment. The project fits her lane: tangled desire, class friction, and cruelty wrapped in a sleek, unsettling package. After Promising Young Woman and the polarizing, hyper-stylized Saltburn, Fennell stepping into Bront's bleak romance feels less like a pivot and more like a natural escalation.

The production shot from late January to early April 2025 across the Yorkshire Dales, including Arkengarthdale and Swaledale, and at Sky Studios Elstree. Linus Sandgren, the Oscar-winning cinematographer behind La La Land and First Man, captured the moors that shape this story's mood and morality. Expect long horizons, harsh weather, and a sense that the land is arguing with the characters.

The ensemble signals an adaptation that may lean into the novel's framing voices. Hong Chau plays Nelly Dean, whose recollections drive the book's narrative. Shazad Latif is Edgar Linton, Alison Oliver is Isabella Linton, with Martin Clunes and Ewan Mitchell in key roles. Newcomers Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, and Vy Nguyen appear as the younger Catherine, Heathcliff, and Nelly, suggesting the film will track both the youthful obsession and its ruinous fallout.

Elordi has called the production "an incredible romance," "a true epic," and "visually beautiful." That framing points to scale and sweep, but Fennell's track record says not to expect a conventional period love story. Bront's novel is not a comfort read; it's a storm. Fennell tends to hold the camera on the storm.

If you want a quick snapshot of the project, here are the core facts:

• Release date: February 14, 2026 (wide theatrical)
• Writer-director-producer: Emerald Fennell; produced with LuckyChap Entertainment
• Leads: Margot Robbie (Catherine Earnshaw), Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff)
• Key cast: Hong Chau (Nelly Dean), Shazad Latif (Edgar Linton), Alison Oliver (Isabella Linton), Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell
• Young cast: Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, Vy Nguyen
• Locations: Yorkshire Dales (Arkengarthdale, Swaledale); stages at Sky Studios Elstree
• Cinematography: Linus Sandgren
• Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Casting debate, a studio bidding war, and the strategy behind the date

The choice of Elordi as Heathcliff has already stirred the discourse. In the novel, Heathcliff is described as "dark-skinned," and his outsider status is central to how the community marks and mistreats him. Past screen versions have approached that detail in different ways. Laurence Olivier played him in 1939. In 2011, Andrea Arnold cast James Howson, a Black actor, restoring the book's link between otherness and how Heathcliff is seen and judged. Fennell hasn't commented on the casting debate yet, but the conversation around race, class, and authorship will shadow this release.

Behind the scenes, the distribution rights sparked a hard-fought contest. Netflix reportedly floated a $150 million offer. Warner Bros. won with a lower bid, around $80 million, by agreeing to the filmmakers' non-negotiables: a wide theatrical release and a heavy marketing push. For Fennell and Robbie, who recently teamed on Barbie (LuckyChap) with Warner Bros., the theatrical-first approach appears to matter as much as the money.

That strategy tracks with how adult-skewing dramas break through now: make them feel like events. A Valentine's Day slot is a statement. Studio calendars rarely park a bleak, messy romance next to roses and prix fixe menus. But the date has worked for unconventional hits before. Deadpool turned the weekend into a phenomenon in 2016. Fifty Shades of Grey owned it in 2015. If this lands as intended, it could be the counter-programming play for viewers who want heat and hurt, not hearts and Hallmark.

Marketing will have to thread a narrow path. Bront loyalists want a version that understands the book's cruelty and its cycle of obsession. Mainstream date-night audiences will be sold on passion, scenery, and stars. Fennell tends to go unflinching with sex and power, so an R rating would not surprise, though nothing is confirmed. The campaign will likely lean hard on Robbie and Elordi's chemistry and Sandgren's wintry images, then tease the darker turns once interest is locked.

Visually, the ingredients line up. Sandgren likes movement and texturerain on lenses, skin in harsh light, space turning into feeling. The Yorkshire locations give him range: open, punishing moors and tight, candlelit interiors. If he and Fennell sync the way her past collaborators have, the look could carry both the romance and the rot.

Structurally, it will be interesting to see how Fennell handles the novel's frameockwood hearing Nelly's story across time. With Hong Chau as Nelly, the film may put more weight on her as the observer who also shapes the tale. That would fit Fennell's interest in narrators whose choices complicate the moral math.

The film's road to release is set but leaves room for prestige positioning. Post-production through 2025 could allow a late-year festival bowenice, Telluride, or Torontoo build awards momentum before the Valentine launch. Warner Bros. has used that corridors-and-crowds approach before: build acclaim, then open wide when the audience is ready.

There's also the public-domain factor. No estate approvals. No fidelity police. That freedom cuts both ways. It lets Fennell chase a singular vision; it also puts pressure on the results to feel purposeful, not just provocative. Her previous films split audiences yet started strong conversations. Expect the same here.

As for the story's heartbeatnd why studios keep returning to itis simple. Catherine and Heathcliff are irresistible and awful. They love each other in ways that scorch everyone else, and each other most of all. Class, adoption, exile, money, revenge: the moors hold it like a battery. If Fennell translates that charge to the screen, Valentine's weekend won't look so sweet. It will look alive.