The new “Wuthering Heights” adaptation, featuring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, was released February 13th of 2026. The movie tells the expansive story of the couple Heathcliff and Catherine.

The gothic tragedy was first written in the novel version of “Wuthering Heights” that was released in 1847 by Emily Brontë. Since the creation of the novel, there have been 30+ different adaptations of “Wuthering Heights” released in mainstream media, each with different takes on the classic.

Throughout the years, the way that the story of “Wuthering Heights” is presented changes, these adaptations keep most of the details from the original novel of Wuthering Heights, however there has been a key detail of the original novel that has been lost in time. 

In the original novel of Wuthering Heights, the novel consistently describes Heathcliff as a “Dark-Skinned Gypsy.” In contrast to this description, out of the 30+ existing different adaptations, nearly all of them feature Heathcliff, as a white man. 

Heathcliff treatment is consistently mentioned throughout the novel with inclusions of time-period specific descriptions against him. Despite this significant detail that affects the entire novel, it’s conveniently left out of their adaptations.

In the novel of Wuthering Heights made by Emily Brontë, it says, “’That Heathcliff—you recollect him, sir—who used to live at Mr. Earnshaw’s.’ ‘What! the gipsy—the ploughboy?’ he cried. ‘Why did you not say so to Catherine?’ ‘Hush! you must not call him by those names, master,’ I said” (Brontë 10).

Some Edison students have pointed out their feelings towards such discrepancies from the novel to the recent movie adaptation of the novel when asked about their feelings towards the adaptation.

“I think that it was weird that they casted a white man to play a black and brown character. This matters because in the book Heathcliff experiences racism because of his dark skin,” said Roha Islam, a freshman in Edison.

This difference between the other characters of the novel and Heathcliff is portrayed in such a manner consistently that most audiences have been able to distinguish Heathcliff as a man of color, so why has Hollywood decided to stick with this portrayal of Heathcliff?

This theme of the white-washing of people of color in film, isn’t a stand alone thing in Hollywood at all, rather this incident is a continuation of the race swapping that has been occurring for decades in the entertainment industry. 

To name an early example of such treatment of POC characters in films, in “The King and I” released in 1956, Yul Brynner plays Mongkut, the fourth king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty a man of Thai descent, this differs from his actor with Brynner being a man of Russian descent. 

The rest of the actors in the film were also of various descents, which in the context of the film still didn’t make sense for the characters’ race.

This habit of Hollywood’s doesn’t just stop at race washing. Hollywood has also been known to lighten the skin of characters designed to be a darker skinned person. Amandla Stenberg, known for her role in 2012’s “Hunger Games” as Rue was casted in the upcoming film “Children of Blood and Bone.” Stenberg was cast in a role designed as a dark skin Black person. The color of the role that they’re playing becomes more significant with “Children of Blood and Bone” where in the novelization of the movie, their character faces discrimination based on her being the darkest of her family. 

This casting decision sparked backlash against the actors and the casting director because of many feeling like this casting choice was disjointed against the story of the film and was purposely trying to make the main characters of the film have more in proximity to whiteness.

“I think that is the power of interpretation and of literature that we’re able to take these words and take them with our own meaning and our experience and have them reflect,“ Stenberg said, in a now deleted post. 

The creation of this post didn’t erase the backlash that they received, with more people advocating that a darker actress was meant to play this role because of how colorism often affects the Black community in Hollywood.

When Black people have been casted in movies, they are far more to be a light skinned or mixed person rather than a dark skinned Black person, creating disproportionate representation of the Black community for the sake of attracting an audience.

Edison students had some responses on if Hollywood were accurate to representation in their portrayal of ethnicities and races.

“I think that movies barely have any representation of different skin tones and ethnicities, most people who are shown in media have lighter skin tones in my culture,” Aziza Akter, a junior, said.

Edison students were also asked, based on their outlook on how Hollywood was supposed to achieve an accurate representation of treatment based on culture, what were the things that Hollywood should do when attempting to portray cultures in media. 

“Just what the public thinks, because public opinion is one of the most important parts in terms of media,” Aaron Williams, a junior, said.