The Social Reckoning trailer: Aaron Sorkin returns with another Facebook film

The first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, which has been described as not a “straight sequel” to David Fincher’s The Social Network, has been released. Since The Social Network, also written by Sorkin, first screened in 2010, the corporation on which it was based, Facebook, has changed beyond recognition. It’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has appeared before the US Congress eight times in the intervening period, and Facebook is no longer just a way to find friends. Facebook in 2010, at a modest estimate, was worth $7.6 billion. Today, Facebook and its parent company Meta is worth $1.44 trillion and now comprises Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. In The Social Reckoning, due for release in October, Facebook’s dark progression is explored, and Zuckerberg is played by Succession’s Jeremy Strong. The trailer depicts Zuckerberg angrily exclaiming he is not “two years out of a dorm room any more”, describing himself as a “free speech absolutist”. The latest episode in the Facebook saga is based on Wall Street Journal series The Facebook Files and follows whistleblower Frances Haugen’s exposure of the damage caused by the social networking site and Zuckerberg’s alleged attempted concealment of wrongdoings. Haugen will be played by Mikey Madison, marking her return to the big screen since winning the best actress Oscar for her performance in Sean Baker’s Anora in 2024. “I don’t want to be made an example of by a guy with unlimited resources,” Madison‘s character says in the trailer to journalist Jeff Horwitz, played by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, after disclosing confidential documents. With Strong replacing Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg in this update, his perpetual frown, widened eyes, and uncannily accurate line delivery are a good approximation of the “professional defendant” testifying in front of the US Congress. Sorkin is both writer and director, marking his return behind the camera after Being the Ricardos (2021) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), both of which received mixed reviews. There is no doubt that Sorkin is strongest with pen in hand or fingers on keys, but he is learning behind the camera. Revisiting familiar terrain provides hope for a movie worthy of the Sorkin name.