Jeremy Strong emailed Mark Zuckerberg before playing him in 'The Social Reckoning' — and he responded

Sixteen years ago, David Fincher wowed audiences with the dorm-room origin story of Facebook with "The Social Network."

The movie would go on to earn eight Oscar nominations and three wins and make stars out of Jesse Eisenberg as its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, and Andrew Garfield as Zuck's former friend and collaborator, Eduardo Saverin.

Now, Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for penning "The Social Network" script, is taking on the writing and directing duties for the movie's follow-up, "The Social Reckoning."

In this movie, things have changed dramatically for Zuckerberg (now played by Jeremy Strong), as Facebook has grown into one of the most influential companies on the planet. But the company has some dark secrets.

Oscar winner Mikey Madison plays Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, who has put her trust in Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, to expose the company's internal research and decision-making.

Sorkin based the script on The Wall Street Journal's expansive investigative series, The Facebook Files, which delved into the social network's impact on youth mental health, misinformation, and the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

Sorkin is no stranger to exploring power and the people who wield it. When he wasn't creating shows like "The West Wing" and "The Newsroom," he wrote the scripts for movies like "The American President" and "Steve Jobs."

But he's never been able to let go of Zuckerberg and Facebook. In a 2020 interview for the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, he noted that what fascinated him about a continuation to "The Social Network" was exploring "the dark side of Facebook."

That interest intensified a year later when The Wall Street Journal released The Facebook Files.

By the spring of 2025, Sony announced that Sorkin was attached to write and direct a follow-up movie.

"There isn't a life that Facebook's algorithm hasn't touched, and that influence has reshaped everything," Sorkin told a room full of movie theater owners at their annual convention, CinemaCon, back in April. "It's time to say more."

Sorkin said he spent 3 days trying to convince Jesse Eisenberg to play Mark Zuckerberg again.