Wuthering Heights Sequel Chances Addressed By Emerald Fennell After Incomplete Adaptation

Warning: This article contains potential spoilers for 2026's Wuthering Heights.Emerald Fennell addresses the possibility of a follow-up to her controversial new book-to-movie adaptation, which only covers about half of the source material.

2026's Wuthering Heights, directed by Fennell, stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, two of the most famous characters in the English literary canon. Emily Brontë's 1847 novel recounts not only Cathy and Heathcliff's doomed relationship, but the lives of the next generation of characters. However, most Wuthering Heights adaptations only cover the former.

Fennell's movie is the same, focusing on Cathy and Heathcliff's childhood and passionate feelings for each other — even after Cathy marries Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) — as adults. Thus, there actually is material to turn into a sequel movie. However, in an interview with ScreenRant's Ash Crossan for Wuthering Heights, Fennell remarked: "Oh my God. Can you imagine Wuthering Heights 2? More Heights, more Wuthering."

The Saltburn filmmaker went on to say: "The thing is that this book is so dense, it's so complicated, and it's so epic. It takes place over generations." She explained that the source material is so extensive that "it was always going to be either you make a miniseries, or even a series of 10 episodes, where you give everything the attention that it would need to be completely faithful to the book," or you have to pick and choose what to keep.

"Or you do what I've done here and make your own kind of response to the book and the things that it made you feel," said Fennell. "The things that you wish happened or didn't happen." In previous interviews, Fennell has discussed how her Wuthering Heights is a personal interpretation, not just because of what it leaves out, but in how she depicts what is included.

But in Brontë's original Wuthering Heights, the story continues after the disastrous end of Cathy and Heathcliff's affair. Heathcliff seduces and marries Edgar's sister Isabella (Alison Oliver), who later flees the abusive marriage and gives birth to a son. Heathcliff also successfully manipulates Cathy's brother Hindley's debts to take control of the family's estate, Wuthering Heights.

After a violent confrontation with Heathcliff, Cathy dies in childbirth, survived by her daughter, also named Cathy. Eventually, Heathcliff schemes to have his own son (named Linton) marry the younger Cathy, as Linton is Edgar's male heir. Thus, after Edgar's death, Heathcliff controls both Wuthering Heights and the Lintons' Thrushcross Grange through his son.

However, having gotten his revenge on the Earnshaws and the Lintons for the abuse he suffered as a child, Heathcliff is left with nothing. He eventually dies as well, and his and Cathy's ghosts are said to haunt the moors, while the younger generation (including Hindley's son Hareton) manages to find some peace once they are free of him. But Fennell's adaptation is not unusual for leaving all this out.

As it has largely worked for past Wuthering Heights movies, focusing on the original Cathy and Heathcliff's story has resulted in success for Fennell. 2026's Wuthering Heights' rotten Tomatoes score currently stands at a favorable 66%, and it is projected to dominate the box office. Those who are criticizing the movie take issue with elements other than the scope of the story.

Gregory Nussen's Wuthering Heights review for ScreenRant denounces it as "a toothless, whitewashed adaptation," specifically alluding to the accusations of whitewashing by casting Elordi as Heathcliff. But Fennell simply doesn't seem to think she needs to make a sequel, as she, like many, is more drawn to the first part of the story.

Wuthering Heights is now in theaters.