The first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s much-anticipated follow-up to The Social Network has landed, giving viewers a first glimpse at Jeremy Strong’s take on Mark Zuckerberg, dodgy haircut and all – and fans have a lot to say about it.
Due to hit cinemas on 9 October, The Social Reckoning is described as a “companion piece” rather than a straight-up sequel to Sorkin’s original 2010 Oscar-winner about the creation of Facebook. Doing double duty this time around, Sorkin serves as both writer and director, taking over from David Fincher.
Stepping into Zuckerberg’s Prada loafers is Succession star Strong, who has big shoes to fill after Jesse Eisenberg won plaudits for his previous performance as the tech CEO.
Also leading the cast is Mikey Madison in one of her first roles since picking up an Oscar for Anora in 2024. Madison plays Frances Haugen, a young Facebook engineer who teams up with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White) to lift the lid on the secrets hidden by the social platform.
open image in galleryWatching the clip released on Wednesday (10 June), viewers were quick to zero in on Strong’s portrayal of Zuckerberg – complete with a red dye job, a very unfortunate haircut and a monotone voice that some are praising as “identical” to the real thing.
“The Jeremy Strong Zuckerberg voice is so spot on, it’s haunting,” said one person on social media, with another agreeing that the casting “nailed” it.
Others were less convinced, asking why producers did not bring Eisenberg – who was nominated for an Oscar for his deadpan performance as the tech billionaire – back for this sort-of sequel.
The trailer is predictably bursting with the kind of hyper-eloquent, rapid-fire dialogue that Sorkin is known for, as evidenced by his work on shows like The West Wing and films such as Molly’s Game.
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“The firehouse of bad information you are injecting into the air supply is becoming jet powered,” Burr tells the Facebook founder at one point in a classic Sorkin line.
The fast pace of the speech, however, has posed a problem for many viewers who stumbled on a few lines spoken by Madison’s character. One person on X tweeted that The Social Reckoning appears to be “a movie that asks – just what in the hell is Mikey Madison saying in the first 10 seconds of this trailer?”, while many agreed in the comments.
We’ve listened very closely, and the line in question sees her character quiz Horowitz’s motives for meeting with her, as she asks: “Listen, before I go on I want to make something clear, I have a hunch you’re not a fan of Facebook – but I am. I am here to help Facebook, not hurt it, OK?”
open image in galleryIt is not the only instance of confusion, however, with some people complaining about yet another line of Madison’s dialogue, in which the actor states: “I ran class fires on political groups where 30 per cent of content hits multiple risk factors.”
“This is the one that took me several passes,” wrote someone on X.
Whether you understand it or not, the film and its tricky dialogue will likely do numbers at the box office when it hits cinemas in October.
Set almost a decade on from The Social Network, the movie is based on the 2021 Facebook Files, an investigation carried out by the Wall Street Journal into the damage caused by the social networking site – such as its mental health impact and proliferation of misinformation – and how internal findings had been buried.
Addressing the passing of time between the two films, Strong’s Zuckerberg declares in the trailer: “I’m not two years out of a dorm room anymore! Look around!”
Also starring in the movie are Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen. US comedian Bill Burr and British actor Wunmi Mosaku, meanwhile, find themselves on Team Zuck, as they help make the tech CEO seem “likeable” before he faces Congress. “I’m happy to lend a hand but I think you’re doomed,” laments Burr’s character.
It has been 16 years since the release of The Social Network, and in that time Facebook has gone from being a platform on which college students rated the attractiveness of women to a trillion dollar enterprise with a political impact on a global scale.
Back in April Sorkin spoke about his reasons for returning to the story once more, stating: “There isn’t a life that Facebook’s algorithm hasn’t touched, and that influence has shaped everything. So it’s time to say more.”