If you are A) chronically online, B) used to eat lunch in your English teacher’s class, or C) all of the above, chances are some hot takes about that new Wuthering Heights trailer have come across your desk.
The main controversy surrounds the casting of the two main characters — Catherine Earnshaw played by Margot Robbie and Heathcliff played by Jacob Elordi. Many believe Robbie to be miscast due to her age and Elordi because he is white.
The film’s casting director, Kharmel Cochrane, told Deadline herself that the 2026 film will stray from Brontë’s original source material, as reflected by Elordi’s and Robbie’s casting.
The movie doesn’t come out until Feb. 13, 2026, but that hasn’t stopped the mutters and shouts of online conversations about the film. Especially since the first trailer and posters were released on Sept. 3.
People have taken to every social media platform to share their opinions, but one TikToker has gone viral with her theory that stems from the title frame of the trailer.
When watching the Wuthering Heights trailer, Jamie McAleney, aka @itsyourfilmsis to her 25.4K followers, noticed something strange about the title.
“I noticed that the end card had the title in quotation marks,” she says in her viral video.
So, she went to the Warner Brothers YouTube page to see if any other movies had quotations in their titles, or if this was a deliberate choice by Fennell that could give viewers a clue of what’s to come on Valentine’s Day.
After scrolling through other trailers, she found that only Wuthering Heights had quotation marks surrounding the title. Her theory only grew from there.
The promotional poster itself is also a nod to old Hollywood, paying homage to Gone with the Wind.
Here’s McAleney’s theory — Margot Robbie is not actually playing Catherine Earnshaw. Or, at least not in the way we all think.
She believes that Fennell’s adaptation will be a take on Wuthering Heights, but following Robbie’s character, a horny Victorian-era yearner who is reading the book for the first time and imagining herself as Catherine.
Another thing that McAleney, and many internet sleuths, have pointed out is a large discrepancy in the costume’s eras. In some frames of the trailer, some of the costumes are reminiscent of the late 1700s, which is when the actual book’s storyline takes place. Other costumes lean more toward Victorian fashion, which became popularized in the mid-to-late 1800s.
McAleney posted this video — her most viral yet with almost 2 million views and 236.3k likes — on Sept. 5. And, though some people still have their qualms and fears about how Fennell adapted the story, it’s clear that McAleney’s theory has intrigued a lot of people. People like her theory, hope it’s true, and are even offering their own connected theories about what we can expect to see in February.
Like the rest of us, McAleney doesn’t know what Fennell has up her sleeve. But, she knows it’s probably not going to be the faithful literary adaptation people are expecting.
Still, the movie and TV commentator will be percolating on more theories as promotional materials continue to roll out ahead of the film’s release. And she hopes her viewers will, too.
What do you think? Is the movie still a big question mark to you, or does McAleney’s theory make sense to you? We want to hear from you in the comments, BuzzFeeders!
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