A steamy Wuthering Heights trailer has dropped. We have five big questions

The teaser trailer has dropped for Wuthering Heights, with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi starring as the tragic lovers at the core of the tale – and it’s a lot.

The trailer for this new version of Emily Bronte’s 1847 gothic tragedy, which is set to be released on Valentine’s Day, features a track by Charli XCX (no sign of Kate Bush’s classic), and sees Elordi reunited with Saltburn director Emerald Fennell. That suggests things are going to be a lot heavier and hotter than previous adaptations of the classic novel.

Here are some of the biggest questions we – and the internet – have after taking in the new trailer.

Is this the Sigmund Freud version of Wuthering Heights?

In the film publicity game, this isn’t actually a trailer, it’s a teaser. Take out the credits and intro, and you’re left with barely a minute of fast-cut, heavy-breathing footage. But what a steamy offering it is, all whips and bridles and tightly drawn corsets, and lots and lots of lingering looks. Fifty Shades of Grey and Gloomy Yorkshire Skies? You betcha.

There’s no sign of the reported scene in which a nun fondles the erect penis of a dead man who’s been (well) hung, apparently, over some crime or other, but there’s enough here to suggest Emerald Fennell isn’t shying away from the kinkiness she first displayed in her debut feature A Promising Young Woman – and took to the next level with Saltburn (that bathtub scene especially).

But the thing that most sticks out (ahem) here is the oral fixation.

We open on a shot of a suitably foggy landscape, then cut straight to a close-up of Margot Robbie’s face, her lips plump and full, her mind wandering, it seems, to thoughts of kneading dough, Jacob Elordi’s face (his mouth looming similarly large), his whip-scarred, sweat-drenched back, hands in eggs, more dough kneading. Lordy, making bread has never been so hot.

And then, 26 seconds in, we have it: Catherine (Robbie) sticks her fingers in Heathcliff’s (Elordi) mouth. And we’re off.

At 49 seconds, someone’s finger – we’re guessing it’s Catherine’s again – is inserted with unmistakable sexual intent into the mouth of a dead fish. At 50, Heathcliff has his fingers in Catherine’s mouth. At 51, Catherine has her fingers in her own mouth. At 54, a bridle is slipped around the head of a woman – possibly Catherine – in a stable (there’s a bonus whip crack from some bloke a second later), and at 63 seconds we see a woman on all fours, chain around her neck, crawling towards the camera, her tongue lolling lasciviously. And then it’s all over. I need a cup of tea and a lie down.

What it all means is anyone’s guess, but consider us teased.

Margot Robbie as she appears in the Wuthering Heights trailer.

How faithful will it likely be to the novel?

When Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 (under the pseudonym Ellis Bell), it was highly controversial, with many critics finding it indecent and “savage”. Its themes of obsessive passion, abuse, and vengeance challenged Victorian-era class structures and sent many reviewers to their fainting couches. One can only imagine the horror if they were to see this teaser.

Aside from the possibility of necrophilic nuns and the 1980s colour palette (and wedding dress), Fennell’s adaptation is bound to annoy Bronte purists.

Does the casting actually work?

Robbie and Elordi are 35 and 28 respectively – that was basically middle-aged when the novel was published. Catherine is aged between 16 and 18 in the novel; Heathcliff about the same. While Margot looks fabulous for her age, neither she nor Elordi look like teenagers.

The bigger issue that purists might take issue with is the fact that Heathcliff is described by Bronte as a “dark-skinned gypsy” who, while handsome and “in dress and manors a gentleman”, is suspected to be “under-bred”.

But does Jacob Elordi the right look as Heathcliff for the film?

Elordi certainly has the “black eyes” Bronte describes, but he’s very clearly white, and Heathcliff’s background is an integral part of the storyline, his “otherness” shaping his character. His ambiguous background was an essential part of the story, used by Bronte to explore the impact of racial prejudice. Granted, if the trailer is anything to go by, exploration of societal issues is not one of the film’s key attractions.

What about the story’s underlying themes of mental illness?
There’s not a lot to go on from the teaser about how the film will explore Catherine’s mental health – or her “brain fever”, as it’s referred to in the book – or Heathcliff’s obsessive rage and desire for revenge (often interpreted by modern critics as a narcissistic disorder).

The trailer is more focused on the erotic aspect of the pair’s love.

Robbie and Elordi clearly have chemistry.

But the intense soundtrack and the snippets of costume and production design– with its bold, saturated colours and trippy Peter Greenaway-esque visuals – could suggest some kind of brain fever.

The obsessive love is clearly signposted, so it stands to reason that things will get unhinged.

Does the gift that keeps on giving have any more to give?
There have been more than a dozen screen adaptations of Emily Bronte’s novel, the first appearing in 1920; the most famous – with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon – in 1939; and the most recent a 2015 made-for-TV film set in an American high school (called, imaginatively, Wuthering High).

It’s been adapted in Spanish (by Luis Bunuel) and in Japanese (by Yoshishige Yoshida).

The landscape will clearly play a big part in the film.

There’s also the rather good 2022 biopic Emily, the debut feature of Australian actor-turned-director Frances O’Connor, which starred English actor Emma Mackey – who bears a striking resemblance to Margot Robbie – as Emily Bronte. Make of that what you will.

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And, of course, there are other adaptations, too – from graphic novels to plays – with the most famous undoubtedly being Kate Bush’s 1978 song.

Each of those re-tellings has tried to put its own spin on the tale, making it relevant to a new generation. With this teaser’s emphasis on kink, and a pumping soundtrack from Charli XCX, Fennell is clearly aiming to do the same.

Whether it hits the mark or makes a total hash of it by trying too hard, we’ll have to wait till February 2026 to find out.

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