“I want the big story, and then I want the bigger story.”
The reckoning is approaching.
Aaron Sorkin is returning to his Oscar-winning Social Network stomping grounds with The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to his acclaimed 2010 origin story of the social media giant known as Facebook. That earlier film — directed by David Fincher and starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg — earned eight Oscar nominations and took home three statuettes, including one for Sorkin’s screenplay.
With The Social Reckoning, The West Wing creator is serving as writer and director, with Jeremy Strong replacing Eisenberg as an older and not necessarily wiser Zuckerberg. Early footage of the film screened at CinemaCon in April, and a teaser trailer dropped in June, giving general audiences their first look at Strong’s take on the CEO, as well as his costars Jeremy Allen White (as an investigative journalist) and Mikey Madison (as a whistleblower) in her first role since winning Best Actress for Anora.
Now the studio has released a new trailer, giving a closer look at the film’s storyline, as Strong’s Zuckerberg gets prepped to testify, and White and Madison build an uneasy journalist/source rapport.
“How hard is it to get powerful people to change something they’re doing?” asks Madison’s character, Frances Haugen.
Replies White’s character, reporter Jeff Horowitz: “You have to cause pain. You have to make it hurt.”
Watch the new trailer below and read on for everything else you need to know about one of the fall’s Oscar contenders.
The Cast
Along with Strong, White, and Madison, the cast also includes Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen, and Bill Burr.
The Logline
A companion piece to the hit film, The Social Network, Sorkin’s original screenplay tells the true story of how Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.
The Backstory
Jesse Eisenberg passed on the opportunity to reprise the role.When asked about his decision not to appear in The Social Reckoning, during an interview on Today, Eisenberg said that it had nothing to do with the movie itself. “Listen, for reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be, really, truthfully,” he said. “But when you play a character, you feel, at some point, you’ve grown into something else.”
After suggesting he had outgrown the character, Eisenberg added, “But it’s a really wonderful movie. I’m friends with Aaron Sorkin who wrote and is directing this movie, and all of the reasons that I am not in it are completely unrelated to how brilliant it will be.”
The first cast news came as a set. According to reports, the reigning Best Actress Oscar winner Madison and two-time Emmy winner White were in early talks to join the project this summer, before the project had received a greenlight from its studio, Sony. Sorkin was reportedly looking to attach actors before approaching the studio for approval.
After word of Madison’s and White’s involvement hit, Strong was added to the mix, though his role was somewhat shrouded in mystery at that point. He has previously starred in two Sorkin directorial efforts, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Molly’s Game. The Hollywood Reporter, which first shared the news, said at the time that he could play either an editor at the Wall Street Journal or Zuckerberg himself. Variety, however, seemed more sure of Strong in the Zuck role. White and Strong recently starred together in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, with the former playing Bruce Springsteen and the latter playing manager Jon Landau.
The Social Reckoning will hits theaters on Oct. 9.
This story was originally published on July 31 and updated on Aug. 26., Sept. 26, Oct. 31, April 14, and June 10.
