All the Ways Margot Robbie’s Wuthering Heights Deviates From the Book

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Emerald Fennell didn’t just sex up Wuthering Heights and call it a day.

Fans hoping for a mature, intense adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel are pleased with the film’s direction, though some feel the movie strayed too far from the original story.

When it was first published, Wuthering Heights received a mixed reaction. For example, The Examiner described the now-famous gothic romance about Heathcliff and Cathy’s intense love as being “strange,” “wild,” “confused,” “disjointed,” and “improbable.”

We come to see films for the unexpected, and it was highly unlikely that director Fennell—who admitted to Fandango she’d taken liberties with the original Brontë story, a fact reflected in the title’s use of quotation marks—would remain faithful to the source material. The book contains no explicit scenes of BDSM, masturbation, or the disturbing act of a doll being made with the heroine’s hair.

Margot Robbie, along with her husband Tom Ackerley and their production company LuckyChap Entertainment, previously produced “Wuthering Heights.” She recently revealed that she hadn’t actually read the novel before receiving the script from Emerald Fennell.

The actress described the movie as an attempt to recreate the emotional impact the original book had on the director, Emerald, when she first read it as a child.

Even though Brontë’s story isn’t simply about the dangers of passionate love turning into obsession and ruining a family for generations…

What could be more romantic when you’re a teenager?

Hence Fennell saying she wanted to make people “cry so hard they vomit.”

The creator of Saltburn built the story around themes of death and intense emotional pain, but she also added her own unique touches. Surprisingly, one thing she didn’t include was a completely nude scene featuring a male character.

Fennell shared on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast that her approach is to make viewers believe they’ve witnessed more than actually happened. Robbie added in an interview with TopMob News that while sex scenes require careful planning, other scenes often capture more genuine emotion in the moment.

Although Robbie and Jacob Elordi definitely share some passionate scenes as Cathy and Heathcliff, that’s not what truly sets this movie apart.

To build those emotional connections, here’s how Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights differs from Emily Brontë’s original novel (and be warned, there will be spoilers for both versions).

To put it simply, Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights doesn’t start with young Catherine Earnshaw seeing a public execution and being disturbed and intrigued by the deceased man’s body.

However, Emerald Fennell’s 2026 film, Wuthering Heights, opens with Charlotte Mellington portraying young Cathy.

The book doesn’t contain that scene. It opens with Cathy already dead and Heathcliff as a man in his late thirties. The story is primarily told through the recollections of Nelly Dean, the Earnshaws’ housekeeper.

Cathy’s father, Mr. Earnshaw, takes in a young, orphaned boy named Heathcliff, whose background and ethnicity are unclear. He brings Heathcliff to live with his family at their home, Wuthering Heights.

I was completely captivated by this film! When young Owen Cooper arrives, Cathy immediately decides to name him after her beloved, deceased brother, Heathcliff. It’s heartbreaking because you quickly learn her father, played brilliantly by Martin Clunes, spirals into ruin with alcohol and gambling. Seeing Cathy desperately trying to escape their awful situation and essentially ‘throwing herself at’ the wealthy Edgar Linton, portrayed by Shazad Latif, was just so poignant and really showed her desperation.

In the novel, Cathy has a 14-year-old brother named Hindley who is still living and resents Heathcliff. Hindley goes on to attend university, marry a woman named Frances, and have a son called Hareton.

Following Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley’s gambling habit gives Heathcliff the opportunity to convince him to put Heathcliff in charge of the property. Later, when Hindley dies from alcoholism, young Hareton is left vulnerable, and Heathcliff takes complete control of Wuthering Heights.

Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights avoids any explicit nudity. As she explained to USA Today, she’s more interested in creating a feeling than showing something explicit, believing that true sensuality often comes as a surprise.

Despite the differences from the novel, Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Cathy (Margot Robbie) have a significant amount of intimate scenes, which are explicitly shown rather than simply implied, as they were in the original book.

Meanwhile, Elordi insisted the movie’s sex quotient was “entirely in the spirit of the novel.”

The actor, speaking about the imagery in the film, explained that every visual element originated from the story’s themes of darkness, passion, and intense longing. He said these visuals naturally reflected the core ideas of the book and felt like a seamless extension of Brontë’s original vision, so nothing felt forced or unexpected.

The novel recounts the tale of Heathcliff and Cathy, including a conversation where Cathy confessed to Nelly her doubts about marrying Heathcliff – a conversation Heathcliff secretly overheard. Distraught, he left Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a rich man. However, during his absence, Cathy had married Edgar.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve noticed how often we act out when we feel misunderstood. In this case, Nelly, played by Hong Chau, is really hurt by something Cathy says – basically, that Cathy doesn’t believe Nelly has ever experienced the depth of love she feels. It’s a painful exchange, and Nelly deliberately engineers a situation so Heathcliff overhears them talking. It’s a way of proving her point, and honestly, a pretty dramatic move fueled by feeling unseen and unappreciated.

After Heathcliff marries Isabella Linton (played by Alison Oliver), Nelly destroys the love letters he wrote to Cathy. Isabella is Edgar’s sister and is considered his ward in the film adaptation of the story.

However, in the novel, Nelly is hesitant but allows Heathcliff to see the sick Cathy, who then passes away shortly after giving birth to a daughter named Catherine.

In the film, adult Cathy discovers servants Joseph (Ewan Mitchell) and Zillah (Amy Morgan) playfully engaging in bondage in the barn. This sparks something in Cathy, and she goes to the moors to experience pleasure, where Heathcliff witnesses the moment and makes sure she knows he has.

In the novel, Zillah recounts to a guest at Wuthering Heights—some time after Catherine’s passing and when Heathcliff is the only owner—that she had only been living there for a short time, about a year or two.

By that point, Joseph, now aged and weathered, is an old man—possibly very old, but still strong and fit.

Heathcliff marries Isabella with the intention of hurting both Edgar and Cathy, and he ends up treating her cruelly as well.

The book quickly shows her that Heathcliff would be a terrible husband. She eventually escapes his abuse and has a son, Linton, in London. She only goes back home to leave Linton, who is twelve years old, with Edgar before she passes away.

However, the movie portrays Heathcliff suggesting a disturbing sexual act involving a dog collar, and she willingly participates. Despite his cruel behavior, she remains devoted and is present when he rushes to be with the ailing Cathy.

Before she gets married in the movie, Isabella owns an elaborate dollhouse and a collection of dolls, including two that are miniature versions of herself and Cathy, remarkably crafted with real human hair.

Consumed by longing for Heathcliff and furious with Catherine, Isabella stages a disturbing scene with a Cathy doll, depicting it as if it had been stabbed in the back and killed.

No such thing occurs in the book.

The film concludes with Cathy’s death following complications from a miscarriage, and it doesn’t include the latter part of the novel, which focuses on what happens to her children.

The beloved 1939 film, featuring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, also has an abrupt ending. It concludes with a heartbroken Heathcliff collapsing and dying on the moors, after pleading with a dying Cathy to haunt him until he joins her in death.

The 2009 ITV miniseries of Wuthering Heights is a closer adaptation of the novel. It stars Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley, who fell in love during filming and married in 2014.

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2026-02-20 00:18