More than 15 years after The Social Network traced Facebook's rise from a Harvard dorm room to a global power, writer Aaron Sorkin is returning to the story with a sequel called The Social Reckoning. According to Deadline, the film draws on The Facebook Files, a 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation that revealed the company's internal knowledge of harms on its platforms, including the suppression of certain political movements and damaging effects on teen girls.
Why Sorkin came back to it
Sorkin had reportedly considered a follow up for years but had not found the right angle until after the January 6, 2020 insurrection, which he believes Facebook played a role in enabling. Sources close to the project told Deadline the film will not center narrowly on that day, and will instead widen out to cover the 2020 election, the platform's effects on teens and preteens, real world violence and its impact in countries outside the United States. Jeremy Allen White, who joins the cast, described the film to The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast as a continuation of the first movie's story, moving from the creation of Facebook to an examination of what the platform has done to people since.
Who is playing who
Jeremy Strong is confirmed to play Mark Zuckerberg, a role he told GQ fascinates him. He compared the challenge to Sebastian Stan playing Donald Trump or White playing Bruce Springsteen, calling the stakes of stepping into a real, still living public figure's shoes both fraught and difficult to talk about publicly while staying committed to the performance.