With almost a year until its scheduled release, Margot Robbie and her latest film are already creating controversy.

When photos were released last week from the set of Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of the Emily Bronte’s 1847 classic Wuthering Heights, fans were not happy.

Robbie, 34, plays the iconic role of teenager Cathy Earnshaw opposite fellow Australian Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.

When Film Crave posted the behind-the-scenes photos of Robbie portraying Catherine’s wedding scene, the comments on X were scathing.

“She seems like a charming person but the fact that she agreed to this makes me question her intellect and the size of her ego. It’s all very unfortunate,” one commenter said.

“Wuthering Heights has been my hyperfixation since age 11; this level of inaccuracy and delusion and just straight up abandonment of the basic description of a main character is going to send me into psychosis I swear to god,” posted another.

And while the majority if the commenters agreed that blonde-haired, new mother Robbie was miscast as dark-haired teenager Cathy, others were equally angry at the dress she was wearing.

Many pointed out the historical inaccuracy of the gown, while others argued that “the tradition of a white wedding dress wouldn’t have come around until after the story took place”.

Fennell – best known as the writer and director of hit films Saltburn and Promising Young Woman – already raised eyebrows last year when her casting choices for Wuthering Heights were revealed.

In the online response in September, Bronte fans described the casting as “disappointing”, “terrible” and “bizarre”.

The Independent newspaper’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey even asked: “Did anyone actually read the book before deciding this?”

Danielle Mariann Dove, a lecturer in English literature at the University of Surrey, said while Earnshaw’s dress could easily have been white, and made of a fine material like silk, the gown worn by Robbie appeared to be more Victorian than from the Georgian era.

While Bronte does not specify dates and ages in her novel set in the late 1700s, it is accepted that Cathy is 18 when she dies prematurely. Heathcliff is a year older.

“Of course, historical accuracy is not necessarily the end goal for film directors,” Dove said. “Rather, Robbie’s anachronistic wedding gown appears to exemplify a broader trend in historical drama (think Bridgerton) towards a kind of strategic inaccuracy, in which producers and costume designers prioritise experimentation over strict fidelity to period detail.

Dove said Fennell may have decided to set her adaptation around the time of the novel’s publication rather than its original late-18th and early-19th century setting.

“Robbie’s wedding dress and cathedral-length veil wouldn’t look out of place at a contemporary wedding. Basque, or drop waist, wedding dresses dominated New York bridal fashion week in October 2024 and are poised to become a major trend in 2025 having been adopted by celebrities such as actor Millie Bobby Brown and podcaster Alex Cooper,” she said.

“Perhaps Fennell’s Cathy is just extremely fashion forward.”

Laurence Olivier was in his 30s when he played Heathcliff. Photo: United Artists

There have been more than a dozen movie adaptations of Wuthering Heights, not all using the book’s title and many in languages other than English.

Laurence Olivier was in his 30s when he played Heathcliff in the classic 1939 film of the novel, which also featured Merle Oberon in her late 20s as Cathy.

Juliette Binoche was approaching 30 when she played Cathy alongside a 30-year-old Ralph Fiennes in a 1992 version.

Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights is scheduled to be released in February 2026.