But the concept remains popular, and there’s admittedly something quite powerful in the idea that love — love with the singularly right person — can fix the most broken of souls is still the foundation of half of the modern-day romance publishing industry today. So, it’s probably only natural that Fennell is as susceptible to it as anyone else. Savior complexes, we apparently all have them! But can she make the ultimate bad boy hot again? (Even if he’s actually abusive and manipulative and cruel?) Is Heathcliff a character that’s possible to “fix”?

Look, if the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein has taught us anything, it’s that Jacob Elordi can be hot in any form. He’s at Gothic Romance Final Boss levels of swoon in this trailer, as Heathcliff smolders in the rain, dramatically rides off into the literal sunset on horseback, and delivers lines like “So kiss me, and let us both be damned” without a single hint of irony or archness. For those of us (cough cough me again cough) who spent our youth loving movies like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Kenneth Branagh’s take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this melodramatic asshole is basically our dream man. And apparently, he’s Fennell’s, too. 

The trailer—once more, completely unironically!—refers to Wuthering Heights as “the greatest love story of all time,” leaning into the star-crossed vibes of Cathy and Heathcliff’s romance and referencing several of the novel’s most iconic lines. (“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” is an all-timer of a sentiment, and I will not be taking questions at this time.) Fennell seems to be approaching this story like she’s remaking Romeo & Juliet on acid—there’s licking of walls, artfully placed fingers in mouth, even shots of sensual breadmaking.

But for all the dizzingly strange visual elements and gorgeously out-of-place costumes, the trailer seems strangely honest and straightforward about one thing: the achingly romantic nature of Cathy and Heathcliff’s forbidden relationship. That Fennell ships it is evident; that she believes in the power of love to save a pair of broken and awful people, even more so. But it’s definitely weird that the film appears to be intentionally leaving out—or has at least declined to mention in its marketing materials thus far—the fact that their love story is also deeply and thoroughly toxic. Yes, their unabashed longing for one another can be read as a form of Peak Romance, but in the novel, their inability to be together is also what turns each of them into the absolute worst versions of themselves, ruining multiple lives (including their own!) in the process.

To be fair, it’s probably too soon to fully tell how this Wuthering Heights will handle its depiction of the (considerable) parts of Brontë’s novel in which Cathy does not appear, and where the full scope of Heathcliff’s viciousness is made plain. But since its twisted romance vibes definitely lean more toward the tragic than the cautionary tale, a not-so-small amount of viewers may well find themselves taken aback by how decidedly dark this story has the potential to become. Or maybe we’ll all end up wanting our own Heathcliff-style fixer-upper in the end.

Wuthering Heights will be released on February 13, 2026.