By the time The Social Network came out in 2020, Facebook had already grown exponentially from its humble origin in Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room. But even the Facebook of 2010, where people shared personal status updates and interacted with their actual friends, is unrecognizable to the AI and misinformation-riddled behemoth it’s become today. Following in the grand tradition of dropping the “the,” Facebook’s parent company even gave itself a new name, Meta, to mark its break from containment. Facebook is no longer just a Social Network; now, it’s time for The Social Reckoning.
The Social Reckoning is the official title of The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s self-directed follow-up, Variety reports. Long-rumored star Jeremy Strong will officially be playing an older version of Zuckerberg, taking over from Jesse Eisenberg, who presumably won’t appear in this film. Needless to say, this is a pretty exciting choice. There aren’t a lot of performers who can command a boardroom quite like the Succession actor.
Strong will be joined by an equally buzzy cast. Anora Oscar winner Mikey Madison is officially on board, as are Bill Burr and Strong’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere co-star Jeremy Allen White. Here’s a description of the film, which is being sold as a “companion piece” to The Social Network, from Variety: “The new film focuses on events that take place nearly two decades after the boy-genius programmer and a troupe of tech pioneers invented what would go on to become the world’s largest social media platform. The Social Reckoning tells the true story of how Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.” The real-life reporting that resulted from this collaboration was published as “The Facebook Files” in 2021 and exposed the company’s knowledge of its harmful impact on teenagers’ mental health, political violence and misinformation, and more.
The Social Reckoning arrives October 9, 2026.
