It was almost exactly one year that Aaron Sorkin announced he was working on a sequel to 2010’s The Social Network. Sorkin won his first (and so far only) Oscar for penning that script that was directed by David Fincher and starred Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (for which each man was Oscar nominated as well). But Sorkin now directs his own screenplays, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that Fincher was not returning to helm the sequel. What was surprising, was when out of nowhere there was reporting that Jeremy Strong was the lead contender to play Zuck. Um, what happened to Jesse?! Well, the official teaser trailer for The Social Reckoning came out last week, with Jeremy indeed acting his patootie off as deeply insecure humanoid Zuckerberg. Now Sorkin has explained to Vanity Fair what was behind the switcheroo. In short: the casting call was entirely Jesse’s.
Eisenberg, 42, received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the divisive Facebook founder in the 2010 movie The Social Network, written by Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, which charts the early days of Facebook and Zuckerberg’s college years at Harvard.
However in the upcoming sequel The Social Reckoning, the role of Zuckerberg will be played by Succession star Jeremy Strong.
The West Wing creator Sorkin revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that he did his very best to try and encourage Eisenberg to return for the second film, as he felt the role “belonged to him” and “he was certainly battle-tested.”
But after three days, Sorkin conceded defeat, as Eisenberg “simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore” and “has his problems with the guy”.
“He doesn’t like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say ‘I’m CEO, b****’ for him to sign,” Sorkin added.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4 in 2025, Eisenberg admitted that he was not keeping tabs on Zuckerberg’s life as “I don’t want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that”.
The film, which will be released in cinemas in October, tracks the fallout after Facebook engineer Frances Haugen turns whistleblower and leaks information about the social media platform.
Haugen will be played by Oscar winner Mikey Madison, with The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White starring as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, who wrote The Facebook Files for the paper in 2021.
Sorkin has described the film as “a real David and Goliath story”, while Strong has praised him for “one of the great scripts I’ve ever read”.
“It speaks to our time, it touches the third rail of everything happening in our world,” he added.
Strong has also revealed that he has not spoken to Eisenberg about taking the role, explaining “I think that has nothing to do with what I’m going to do”.
This absolutely tracks for Jesse Eisenberg’s character. In fact, I wonder if Sorkin made his three-day pitch/plea/beseeching around awards season 2025. Jesse was making the rounds that year as a nominee for best original screenplay for A Real Pain, and that’s when he told the BBC that he didn’t want to think of himself “as associated with someone like that.” I don’t blame Jesse! Good for him for sticking to his morals, a trait which probably makes him less qualified to play Mark Zuckerberg these days. Still, it’s nice to hear that it was Jesse’s decision and not some kind of snub (except the snub to Zuck which is totally allowed). And it’s not like Jeremy Strong isn’t an excellent choice in his own right; the emotional instability he brought to life as Kendall Roy on Succession is perfectly in line with Zuck’s desperate desire to be liked, if not loved. A tragic quest given, well, you know. “I’m booed” pretty much lives rent free in my head.
The Social Reckoning comes out on October 9, and may very well screen at some fall film festivals. In the meantime, I’d like to get a head start on the third installment: The Social Sentencing, where I propose we cast Beaker of the Muppets as Zuck, and the movie is just a montage of guilty verdicts being delivered in court.
Photos credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images, PacificCoastNews.com/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalo
I have a crush on Jesse Eisenberg. I find him really charming, self deprecating and nerdy and would be so fun spending an afternoon with him. I also love how he seems to have some very strong female friendships.
I get it. People seem to really associate him with this role and he absolutely has come to loathe Zuckerberg and all he stands for. It’s nearly impossible to play someone if you can’t find a way to understand, sympathize, or justify the character at least to yourself.
As a person who won’t do Fb or Instagram or Threads I agree with Jesse’s refusal to give Zuckerberg more room in his life. Jeremy Strong will sink his teeth in it and give us the weirdness it deserves.
I feel like I’m one of the rare people that have not seen this movie! Never had the desire to and probably never will. Anyone else just that just didn’t give a s*#t back then? And still doesn’t?
I saw it back then and I loved it – I’m not going to lie. It was kind of a perfect storm of great casting (first time I’d ever seen Andrew Garfield in something) and excellent directing – all accompanied by an off the charts soundtrack by Trent Reznor.
I think it would probably hold up, to be honest.