A Gothic Love Story Meets Modern Stardom on the Red Carpet

Emerald Fennell’s bold new take on Wuthering Heights arrived in Hollywood with a star-packed red carpet featuring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi and Charli XCX, turning a classic literary romance into one of the buzziest premieres of the year. Blending prestige cinema, pop culture and fashion, the world premiere offered an early look at how this adaptation might reshape the way modern audiences see Emily Brontë’s stormy love story.


Charli XCX, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi posing together on the Wuthering Heights red carpet
Charli XCX, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi on the Wuthering Heights world premiere red carpet. Image via Deadline.

While the film itself won’t hit wide release for a bit, the premiere already tells a story: this isn’t a dusty period piece so much as a high-style, high-drama event that bridges literary canon and 2020s celebrity culture.


From Emily Brontë to Emerald Fennell: Why This Adaptation Matters

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel has been adapted many times, but its mix of toxic romance, class rage and supernatural atmosphere has always been tricky on screen. Enter Emerald Fennell, whose work on Promising Young Woman and Saltburn proved she’s drawn to unsettling, morally thorny stories.

Fennell’s version lands in a media ecosystem obsessed with messy, complicated relationships and anti-heroes, which makes Heathcliff and Cathy feel strangely contemporary. Casting modern idols like Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie isn’t just stunt casting; it positions the film as a cultural event rather than a homework assignment.

“I’ve always thought of Wuthering Heights as the original toxic love story,” Fennell has said in recent interviews. “It’s beautiful and vicious, romantic and cruel — which makes it perfect for right now.”

Industry-wise, this adaptation hits the sweet spot between awards-season prestige and social-media-ready spectacle. It’s the kind of project that can play Venice or TIFF and still trend on TikTok the same night.


Red Carpet Fashion: Gothic Romance with a Pop Edge

The premiere’s fashion brief seemed to be “moody romance meets 2026 glam.” Rather than strict period cosplay, the styling leaned into color, silhouette and texture that echoed the novel’s windswept gloom without looking like a costume party.

  • Margot Robbie leaned into leading-lady gothic chic with clean lines and a modern silhouette that nodded to Regency drama without going full corsetry.
  • Jacob Elordi continued his run as the industry’s favorite tall, brooding presence with a tailored look that channeled Heathcliff’s intensity more than his poverty.
  • Charli XCX brought pop star volatility to the carpet, her styling hinting that the film’s soundtrack and marketing will lean hard into contemporary music culture.

Red carpet with photographers flashing cameras at film premiere
Flashbulbs and fanfare: the classic red carpet ritual framing a very modern literary adaptation. Representative image via Pexels.

Visually, the event understood its assignment: sell Wuthering Heights not as dusty curriculum material, but as something with the chaotic energy of a viral situationship — just one wearing couture.


Casting Heat: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi and the New Heathcliff-Cathy Dynamic

The premiere cemented what many already suspected: this is a star vehicle as much as a literary adaptation. Robbie’s producing instincts and Elordi’s post-Saltburn momentum make this pairing feel like a deliberate collision of two very different kinds of celebrity.

Robbie brings audience goodwill and a knack for playing complicated women who are both sympathetic and morally opaque. Elordi, meanwhile, has become a go-to face for beautiful danger. Together, they suggest a Wuthering Heights that embraces the novel’s toxicity without sanitizing it into a conventional romance.


Silhouettes of two people standing close together in a moody cinematic setting
A moody, cinematic pairing echoes the obsessive romance at the heart of Wuthering Heights. Representative image via Pexels.
As one early critic at the premiere reportedly remarked, “You can feel the audience rooting for them and recoiling from them at the same time — which is exactly what Brontë would’ve wanted.”

That tension — attraction mixed with alarm — is the film’s core selling point. The red carpet, with its perfectly curated images of the leads, is building that push-pull long before the first public screening.


Charli XCX and the Sound of a 19th-Century Classic in 2026

Charli XCX’s presence on the carpet wasn’t accidental. In 2020s Hollywood, a musician on the premiere line usually signals a soundtrack play — and Charli’s name practically guarantees a hybrid of club-adjacent pop and emotional chaos.

If Charli’s involved musically, expect a score or song choices that refuse safe “heritage drama” sounds in favor of something closer to her restless, experimental pop. That could position Wuthering Heights alongside projects like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, where music becomes a time-travel machine for younger audiences.


Close-up of a sound mixing board with colorful lights in a studio
A modern pop-forward soundtrack could be key to pulling new audiences into Brontë’s windswept world. Representative image via Pexels.

Visual Language: From Windswept Moors to Step-and-Repeat Walls

Even without full plot details, the imagery from the premiere aligns with Fennell’s fondness for contrast: beautiful people, beautiful clothes, and an underlying sense of danger. The stark lighting and high-contrast photography of the red carpet shots echo the emotional extremes that define Wuthering Heights.


The novel’s iconic moors remain a visual touchstone, mirrored in marketing that leans into stormy romance. Representative landscape via Pexels.

Hollywood knows that red carpet photos will circulate far more widely than any single review. In that ecosystem, every frame needs to sell the film’s identity: tragic, glamorous, a bit unhinged. The premiere images accomplish exactly that.


Early Read: Strengths, Potential Pitfalls and Industry Buzz

Based on reactions from attendees and the way the premiere was staged, Fennell’s Wuthering Heights looks poised to be one of the more divisive but interesting literary adaptations in recent years.

  • Strengths: A-twist casting, a clear visual identity, and a director with a proven talent for morally complex stories.
  • Risks: Fans of more traditional period dramas may find the tone too acidic or stylized, and purists may bristle at any major structural or tonal liberties.
  • Commercial outlook: With Robbie, Elordi and Charli in the mix, this has genuine crossover potential beyond the typical costume-drama crowd.

Audience seated in a cinema watching a film with the screen glowing
Festival and premiere audiences will set the tone for how mainstream viewers approach this darker, more stylized Wuthering Heights. Representative image via Pexels.

The red carpet suggests a film that leans into the novel’s cruelty and obsession rather than smoothing it into comfort viewing. Whether that becomes a critical darling, a cult favorite, or a beautiful misfire will depend on how well Fennell balances her flair for provocation with the book’s raw emotional core.


What This Premiere Tells Us About the Future of Literary Adaptations

The Wuthering Heights premiere underlines how 2020s Hollywood treats classic novels less like sacred texts and more like IP playgrounds: remixable, re-scoreable, and ripe for bold, sometimes polarizing reinterpretations.

Whether you’re drawn in by the prestige, the fashion, or the promise of Charli XCX scoring your favorite English-class heartbreak, this red carpet made one thing clear: Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights plans to haunt both awards ballots and social feeds — just the way a good ghost story should.