Fifteen years after The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin will write and direct a sequel film titled The Social Reckoning. The film is scheduled for release on October 9, 2026. Jesse Eisenberg will not return to his breakout role as Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the part will be played by the more serious Jeremy Strong, who is best known for playing Kendall Roy in Succession. Strong is recognized for his method acting, a technique where the actor immerses themselves in the character’s mental and emotional state. If Strong suddenly takes up MMA fighting and shows enthusiasm for a social metaverse that no one wants, then we will know that filming is about to begin.
The story will not pick up directly where The Social Network left off. Instead, it will center on Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who leaked a massive collection of internal documents. Haugen will be played by Mikey Madison. The film will follow her actions in 2021, when she provided documents to a Wall Street Journal reporter, played by Jeremy Allen White, and accused the company of prioritizing profits over people.
Among the most significant revelations from Haugen’s leak was internal research showing the company was aware that Instagram harmed the mental health of teenage girls. Haugen testified before Congress that Facebook was fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia because content moderation efforts in non-English languages were under-resourced. Her documents also revealed that 87 percent of Meta’s spending on reducing misinformation went toward English language content, even though English speakers make up only 9 percent of the platform’s users.
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, which rebranded to Meta shortly after the leaks, have always been critical of how The Social Network depicted the company’s origin. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg revealed in an interview that he saw the movie once on an outing with Facebook employees. He said the outing was arranged because he knew employees would see the film anyway. He commented that while the film got specific details correct, like what he was wearing, the overall narrative about his motivations was completely wrong.