Back when Aaron Sorkin wrote The Social Network, Facebook was still primarily just a social media platform – albeit one that brought revolutionary levels of connection for people around the world, for better and worse. All of which proved fertile ground for a tech-startup-as-Greek-tragedy tale of Mark Zuckerberg’s rise, penned by Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. But cut to 2026, and Facebook has come to symbolise something much more complex, with much starker implications; ample material, then, for Sorkin to write and direct The Social Reckoning, a follow-up of sorts.
“Brexit, Cambridge Analytica — every time a Facebook event would crop up, I’d get phone calls from people saying, ‘You gotta write about this,’” the filmmaker tells Empire. But there’s a reason it’s taken until now to make a second film. “I just couldn’t see where the movie was,” he says. “Before a film can be thought-provoking, relevant or important, it has to work as something that you’ll watch while eating popcorn.”
Rather than a straight sequel, Sorkin describes Reckoning as “another movie about Facebook written by the same guy”, dramatising the 2021 Facebook leak with Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen, and Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz. Stepping into the role of Zuckerberg this time is Jeremy Strong, taking over the role from Jesse Eisenberg; fresh casting for a totally different conception of what Facebook has become. “He didn’t feel like he was stepping into Jesse’s shoes,” says Sorkin of Strong’s take. “He felt, as I did, that it’s not the same character. I think that a few minutes into Jeremy’s performance, people are going to forget about anything else.” Status update incoming.
Read Empire‘s full The Social Reckoning story in the Digger issue, on sale Thursday August 17. Pre-order a copy online here. The Social Reckoning comes to cinemas on October 9.
