The Social Network sequel will not star Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but it was not for lack of trying, revealed writer-director Aaron Sorkin.
Sorkin, who wrote the first film, has both written and directed its sequel, The Social Reckoning, which will star Oscar nominee Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg this time around.
Sorkin told Vanity Fair on Friday that he initially wanted Eisenberg to return, despite the actor having repeatedly said he no longer wanted to be “associated” with the Meta CEO. “I felt like it belonged to him, and he was certainly battle-tested,” Sorkin told the outlet.
“He simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore,” Sorkin said, echoing comments Eisenberg has made in past interviews, though he said he did not want to speak for the actor. Sorkin added, “He doesn’t like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say ‘I’m CEO, b---h’ for him to sign.”
Eisenberg told BBC Radio 4’s Today in February 2025 that he’s no fan of Zuckerberg despite scoring his first Oscar nomination in 2011 for playing him. The pair even appeared together on Saturday Night Live that year.
“It’s not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I’m a great golfer,” he said at the time. “It’s like this guy that’s doing things that are problematic—taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened.”
The month prior, he told NPR’s Fresh Air that he was done “defending” the tech billionaire.
“As an actor, your job is to really understand your character; even if the character is a villain in a movie, your job is to defend your character,” Eisenberg said. “And so I spent a lot of time thinking about this guy and thinking about how he felt…outcast in the world.” Zuckerberg “created this thing in order to connect with other people because he felt uncomfortable connecting with other people through more traditional social norms,” he said he thought of his character while filming.
He no longer feels that way, he said, admitting he was “a little bit sad” about the “path” the CEO’s taken since Facebook became a megacompany.
Sorkin’s own criticisms of Zuckerberg have grown even fiercer. He declared in 2024, “I blame Facebook for January 6.” In order to find out why, he said, teasing the then-upcoming Social Reckoning, “You’re gonna need to buy a movie ticket.”
The director said Friday that he set his critiques aside while writing the film. “I can’t judge Mark Zuckerberg while I’m writing it,” he explained. “You’ve got to write that character like they’re making their case to God why they should be allowed into heaven.”
