Sony Pictures has unveiled the trailer for The Social Reckoning, a sequel to the 2010 Oscar-winning drama The Social Network. The film arrives sixteen years after the original chronicled Facebook's founding and early growth.
Jeremy Strong has been cast as Mark Zuckerberg in the new film, which examines the social media company through the lens of recent whistleblower revelations and internal investigations. Aaron Sorkin, who won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay on the first film, returns to write and direct the sequel. Sorkin previously signaled his political perspective on the project, stating: "I blame Facebook for January 6." He elaborated that the platform has been "tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible" and that there should be tension between growth and integrity at the company, but there isn't.
The original film, directed by David Fincher, won three Academy Awards and featured Jesse Eisenberg as the young Zuckerberg. It also starred Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, and Rashida Jones. The 2010 film earned 224 million dollars worldwide.
The Social Reckoning shifts its focus from Facebook's creation to its later controversies. The sequel will be based on reporting by Jeff Horowitz for the Wall Street Journal in a series called The Facebook Files. That 2021 investigation exposed how internal findings had been buried and explored Facebook's influence on the January 6 riot and the mental health of teenage users.
Reports indicate that The Bear's Jeremy Allen White is in talks to play Horowitz, the journalist behind the investigation, while Anora's Mikey Madison would portray the whistleblower at the center of the articles. Madison recently won the Oscar for best actress in March.
Strong is known for his intense dramatic performances. He won an Emmy for his portrayal of Kendall Roy in the acclaimed HBO series Succession. He received an Oscar nomination this year for playing attorney Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, which traces the young Donald Trump's rise in 1980s New York. Strong will next appear alongside White in the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere, playing producer and Springsteen collaborator Jon Landau.
Zuckerberg himself was critical of the original Social Network in a recent podcast interview. "It was weird, man," he said. "They got all these very specific details of what I was wearing correct, but then the whole narrative arc around my motivations was completely wrong."
The original Social Network was based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and became a cultural touchstone. The sequel represents Hollywood's continued fascination with the tech industry and its most prominent figures.