Why does Hollywood keep remaking stories like Wuthering Heights? The genre has an audience

Much like superhero reboots targeted at men, period drama remakes like Wuthering Heights continue to find favour with female audiences

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Jacob Elordi (left) and Margot Robbie in a still from Wuthering Heights. The latest remake is an example of one of Hollywood’s favourite hobbies: adapting classic novels about women in the 19th century over and over. Photo: TNS

Published: 4:15am, 21 Feb 2026

Emerald Fennell is very much aware that her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is going to anger and upset Brontë purists. In fact, the title of the movie is technically “Wuthering Heights” – quotation marks and all – to denote that this is something different.

The director ditches major characters and changes many plot points. Charli XCX songs dominate the soundtrack, and costumes look like they came from a deranged child’s dollhouse. Perhaps the biggest difference between Fennell’s and the original is that, in the new version, Cathy (Margot Robbie, also a producer) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) consummate their forbidden love. A lot. They have torrid sex. He licks her face and sucks her fingers.

At the same time, Wuthering Heights is still Wuthering Heights, and the latest is an example of one of Hollywood’s favourite hobbies: adapting classic novels about women in the 19th century over and over.

It is the reboot culture that has consumed the mainstream studios, but with a twist. Whereas superhero stories are largely aimed at men, these appeal to a distinctly female fan base.

Fennell’s film remains a story about Catherine Earnshaw, who is obsessed with Heathcliff, the “gypsy” boy her father brought home as an orphan. Cathy and Heathcliff still become childhood friends, and she still marries the wealthy Edgar Linton. She and Heathcliff still continue to pine for one another and ruin each other’s lives.

Why does Hollywood keep remaking stories like Wuthering Heights? The genre has an audience

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Much like superhero reboots targeted at men, period drama remakes like Wuthering Heights continue to find favour with female audiences

Much like superhero reboots targeted at men, period drama remakes like Wuthering Heights continue to find favour with female audiences