- The latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights will be released in February 2026
- The cast announcements have been met with backlash – particularly Jacob Elordi, who will portray Heathcliff
- The official Brontë museum has now weighed in on the race row
The new adaptation of Wuthering Heights is set to hit theaters in February 2026.
And while some fans are looking forward to watching the Emerald Fennell-directed movie, other parts of the film have already come under fire.
Not only will Australian actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi be under extreme pressure to perfect their Yorkshire accents as Catherine ‘Cathy’ Earnshaw and Heathcliff in the movie, but the announcement of Elordi’s involvement was also met with huge backlash because of his skin color.
Fans of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel will know that Heathcliff is described as a “dark-skinned gypsy” – whereas the Euphoria actor, 27, is obviously white.
But while the character is also referred to at times as “pale” and possibly “Spanish”, the Brontë museum has also weighed in on the race row, and suggested that Heathcliff may have been black.
Heathcliff a man of ‘black African descent’, according to Brontë Parsonage
Once the childhood home of Emily and her famous literary sisters, Charlotte and Anne, the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth is now a museum dedicated to the authors.
And, supported by the Brontë Society, it has set out the case for Heathcliff being a man of “black African descent”.
Information on its website suggests Heathcliff may have been inspired by a black abolitionist and former slave.
It states that while the character’s ethnicity remains a mystery, there are clues “linking him to the transatlantic slave trade”.
“The fact that Heathcliff is found in Liverpool, described as an orphan with no ‘owner’ or ‘belonging’ to anybody, opens up the possibility that Heathcliff could have black African descent, having been brought to Liverpool through the slave trade,” says a resource on the official Parsonage website.
It also adds that Brontë may have based Heathcliff’s appearance on that of Frederick Douglass, the black American abolitionist, who was a renowned figure at the time the novel was written.
Fans furious as Jacob Elordi cast as Heathcliff
Many fans were furious when Elordi was announced to be taking on the role back in September 2024.
Throughout the novel, Heathcliff is treated as an outcast due to the racism of both the Linton and Earnshaw families.
“Emily Bronte describing Heathcliff: ‘dark-skinned gipsy, ‘a little Lascar’, ‘as dark almost as if it came from the devil.’ Hollywood casting director: So basically a white man with a tan then?,” noted one fan.
Another said, “Just a not so friendly reminder: Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is explicitly dark skin and Romani, and his experiences as a man of color influence his entire character and story as a man suffering racist abuse from his adoptive family.”
Another added, “I think we all have to admit that Emerald is a right winger in disguise because how the f*** do you cast Elordi as Heathcliff, but the actual person of color you cast (Shazad Latif) is playing the white oppressor? Is Fennell on fentanyl or what?”
Someone else noted, “So the man who should play Heathcliff…….. isn’t playing Heathcliff? WTF!?”
