Margot Robbie’s casting as a teenage character in a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights is a puzzle

Yes, we love Margot Robbie but the 34-year-old’s casting as Catherine, a teenage character from Emily Bronte’s beloved Wuthering Heights, makes you wonder if anyone in Hollywood has read the book.

Did anyone actually read the book is the question being posed after the announcement that heart-throb Aussies Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi will be the star-crossed lovers in a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Yes we may love the hottest stars in Hollywood, but 34-year-old Margot Robbie in the role as Catherine, one of literature’s most beloved characters from the classic Emily Bronte novel, has purists scratching their heads given she was portrayed as a teen in the book.

Margot Robbie will play Catherine in Wuthering Heights. Picture: Amanda Edwards

Jacob Elordi will play Heathcliff. Picture: Claudio Lavenia

Similarly for Elordi, who yes is swoony and has a chiselled jaw like no other, in the role of tortured Byronic hero, Heathcliff, who is described as “dark skinned” in the classic tale set on the tempestuous Yorkshire moors.

Is this a classic case of whitewashing?

The passionate love of Cathy and Heathcliff, has been breaking hearts since it was published by under Bronte’s pen name Ellis Bell in 1847.

Women have been swooning over Heathcliff for years, despite the character being a bit of an a-grade a-hole.

But if anyone can make it work it is director Emerald Fennell of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman fame (sidenote: she also starred as a young Camilla in The Crown).

The movie is set to start filming in the UK next year, with Robbie due to have her first baby with husband Tom Ackerley any day now.