3 min readIt was 16 long years ago when, in the 2010 film The Social Network, Justin Timberlake (playing Sean Parker) uttered the line, “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” Those prophetic words have since defined the last decade and a half in technology, politics, and culture, in which the ruling ethos is endless profits at-all-costs. Now, it’s time to reckon with what that’s done to us. Out of CinemaCon in Las Vegas came the first look at Aaron Sorkin’s sequelto The Social Network, officially titled The Social Reckoning.
On Monday, CinemaCon kicked off with an avalanche of tentpole-centric movie news. There were new posters unveiled for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the trailer debut for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, and news about a dark animated film based on the video game Bloodborne. But the buzziest reveal was The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to The Social Network from writer/director Aaron Sorkin. The new movie, slated for theaters October 9, stars Jeremy Strong as an older Mark Zuckerberg. Strong takes over for Jesse Eisenberg, who was nominated for his performance in the first movie.
On stage, Sorkin previewed the first-look with a short introduction. “Awhile back, we told a story about a college kid who built a website in his dorm and connected the world,” he said. “As you might have noticed, a couple of things have changed since that dream exploded into a global corporation. There isn’t a life that Facebook’s algorithm hasn’t touched, and that influence has reshaped everything. It’s time to say more. It’s a real David and Goliath story.”
Reporters and influencers who attended Sony’s presentation say The Social Reckoning is shaping up to be a high-stakes legal thriller. That’s not unlike what The Social Network was, except the scope of Reckoning extends beyond two former besties suing one another and lawyers trying to figure who “stole the Facebook.” This time, Reckoning is rooted in the 2021 probe by the Wall Street Journal, which revealed that Facebook and its leadership knew about the website’s harm on its billions of users and covered it up.
Reactions surfaced on X (neé Twitter), while outlets like DiscussingFilm published recaps of what was screened. Wrote DiscussingFilm:
“The footage opens on Mikey Madison as Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz, discussing a potential story exposing the Facebook company’s secrets. The trailer then cuts to the first look at CEO Mark Zuckerberg, transformatively played by Jeremy Strong in convincing makeup, defending his role in the company and dubbing himself a leader of free speech.
“The trailer boasts Sorkin’s sharp dialogue, hearings, scandals, and an examination of Zuckerberg’s impact on the changing modern world since the original film.”
World of Reel was also in attendance, and detailed the film as one where Zuckerberg fashions himself as a “professional defendant” and a “free speech absolutist.” The outlet also describes the buzzy but polarizing reactions to Strong’s performance and makeup: Some believe Strong’s casting is a stroke of genius, while others question whether the absence of Eisenberg actually necessitated a ‘spiritual sequel.’”
Perhaps the most glaring difference between the movies is how they will look and feel. The Social Network was memorably helmed by David Fincher, an auteur whose hyper-specificity, clean framing and blocking, and generally intense approach to working with actors delivered one of the most pivotal movies of the 21st century. Meanwhile, Sorkin has spent the better part of the last ten years transitioning into directing, though his features like Molly’s Game (2017) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) haven’t afforded him the same acclaim as his screenwriting credits.
Sorkin still wrote The Social Reckoning, so expect to hear the same whippy verbal cadence and other “Sorkin-isms” that are the The West Wing creator’s signatures. But under his vision, it may look and feel like something else. Place your Kalshi bets now which new Radiohead song will get a church choir cover in the trailer.