Jeremy Strong is the new Mark Zuckerberg in the first public trailer for The Social Reckoning.
The Aaron Sorkin film is a companion piece to The Social Network, the 2010 drama written by Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. This time, Jesse Eisenberg is not returning as Zuckerberg.
Strong plays an older version of the Facebook founder as the story moves into the years surrounding the 2021 Facebook Files investigation. Sony released the trailer ahead of the movie’s Oct. 9 theatrical release.
The film also stars Mikey Madison as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, whose reporting helped bring Haugen’s documents to the public.
Strong Takes Over the Zuckerberg Role
People reported that The Social Reckoning shows Zuckerberg in the late 2010s and 2020, years after the college-era story dramatized in The Social Network. Strong, 47, takes over the role from Eisenberg, whose 2010 performance earned him an Academy Award nomination.
The Verge reported that the trailer gives Strong a more mature Zuckerberg voice and places him inside a story about Facebook’s secrets rather than the company’s origin. The new movie is written and directed by Sorkin, who won the Oscar for writing The Social Network.
People reported that none of the original film’s main cast, including Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Armie Hammer, appears in the new movie.
The Trailer Centers on Frances Haugen and the Facebook Files
The official synopsis quoted by People says the film follows Haugen, a young Facebook engineer, as she enlists Horwitz to expose “the social network’s most guarded secrets.” Madison plays Haugen, while White plays Horwitz.
The Associated Press reported that Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal Facebook records to the Journal, leading to the 2021 investigation known as the Facebook Files. AP reported that the series alleged Facebook prioritized profits over safety and hid internal research from investors and the public.
People reported that the Facebook Files included stories about high-profile users bypassing rules, internal research on Instagram’s effects on teen girls, and algorithm changes that made users angrier. Zuckerberg denied that Facebook would deliberately promote anger for profit in an October 2021 open letter.
Sorkin Described the Movie as a David and Goliath Story
The trailer was first shown at CinemaCon before Sony released it publicly. JoBlo reported that Sorkin described the film there as a David-versus-Goliath story about a whistleblower and a reporter taking on Facebook.
JoBlo also reported that the CinemaCon footage showed Strong’s Zuckerberg interacting with a character played by Bill Burr, who appears to be involved in damage control. The outlet said the trailer looked different in style from Fincher’s The Social Network but ended with music from the 2010 film.
The wider cast includes Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen, and Bill Burr, according to People. JoBlo also listed Burr and Mosaku among the cast members shown during Sony’s presentation.
The Social Reckoning Opens in October
The Social Reckoning is scheduled to open in theaters on Oct. 9. The Verge reported that the new film takes place 17 years after the events portrayed in The Social Network, with Facebook no longer framed as a dorm-room startup but as a global company facing whistleblower disclosures and public scrutiny.
AP described the movie as a companion piece rather than a direct sequel. The Social Network grossed more than $226 million worldwide, earned eight Oscar nominations, and won three Academy Awards.