Box Office
Hit · 3.0xBudget$80M
Worldwide Gross$241.6M
Mild wokeness via DEI race-swaps (e.g., Asian Nelly, South Asian Edgar) and modern tweaks like queer hints, but prioritizes pulpy, erotic entertainment over preaching—no heavy messaging or flop.
The 2026 Wuthering Heights adaptation by Emerald Fennell features noticeable progressive influences primarily through casting choices that introduce DEI-style diversity into a historically white 18th-century Yorkshire setting, such as Hong Chau (Asian-American) as the traditionally white servant Nelly Dean and Shazad Latif (South Asian) as the pale, blond Edgar Linton—race-swaps lacking narrative justification and clashing with the source material.
These feel like incidental forced inclusions rather than organic. Counterintuitively, the casting of white Jacob Elordi as the ambiguously dark-skinned Heathcliff drew significant backlash for 'whitewashing,' highlighting identity politics debates but not advancing progressive mandates.
Thematically, the film loosely reimagines the novel with hyper-sexualized, carnal elements, anachronisms like Charli XCX songs, and hints of queer storylines, modernizing the gothic romance into a pulpy, erotic bodice-ripper that subverts traditional love stories without overt social justice lectures or systemic critiques. Director Fennell emphasizes personal vision over fidelity, defending choices based on her childhood book illustration rather than activist intent.
Reception is mixed (66% RT), with controversies centered on representation and fidelity rather than overwhelming 'woke' complaints; audience reactions split between purists upset by changes and representation advocates decrying whitewashing, but no 'go woke go broke' collapse. Overall, progressive elements influence casting and add light modern sensibilities but do not dominate the narrative or compromise core entertainment with heavy messaging.
We've run a full content analysis on "Wuthering Heights" and scored it 5/10 on the woke scale. Read our detailed breakdown above to see exactly what we found.
Our analysis checks for themes like identity politics, race-swapping, gender ideology, environmental activism, anti-religious messaging, and other progressive agenda elements. The score breakdown above shows which specific categories were flagged and how heavily they factor into "Wuthering Heights"'s overall score.
Wokeometer focuses on ideological content rather than traditional ratings (violence, language, etc.). "Wuthering Heights" is rated R. For a full picture, combine our woke analysis with the age ratingto decide if it's right for your family.
We evaluate media across multiple ideological categories on a 0–10 scale. Scores of 0–3 mean story-first, 4–6 have moderate elements, and 7–10 flag heavily agenda-driven content.
Methodology: Each score synthesizes audience discourse, critic and aggregator reception, and press coverage — weighed against the work itself, not any single source.
See how this title scores across all 5 woke subcategories with detailed explanations.
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