Social Network Sequel Starring Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg Demolished By Critics After First Trailer: ‘Looks Like an SNL Sketch’
The first trailer for “The Social Reckoning” dropped on Wednesday, and critics are dragging the first look across coals, mocking director Aaron Sorkin and the choice of Jeremy Strong to play Facebook head, Mark Zuckerberg.
“The Social Reckoning” is a sequel to the 2010 hit “The Social Network,” which featured Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and tracked the beginnings of Facebook. That film was directed by David Fincher, who did not return to the director’s chair for the sequel. Directing duties were instead taken up by Sorkin (who wrote both films).
The sequel follows the story of whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Mikey Madison), who released thousands of internal Facebook documents to The Wall Street Journal and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) back in 2021. Haugen showed through the documents that Facebook leadership was aware of its algorithms radicalizing people and promoting harmful content, but chose to keep such research away from investors.
Some on social media expressed excitement for the new film, but most critics were quick to pounce on the first trailer for Sorkin’s sequel, with many unfavorably comparing it to a made-for-TV movie and questioning Strong being chosen to play Zuckerberg.
“I hate to be that guy, but the very basic problem with this movie is that Jeremy Strong is 15 years too old to be playing this part,” The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch pointed out about Strong, best known for his work on Succession.
Strong is 47, and Zuckerberg is 42.
“Every line of this trailer will have you cringing harder than the one before it right up until the last one, at which point you will actually laugh out loud,” Argus Insight founding partner Lachlan Markay wrote.
“This is going to be so bad,” The Hill’s Robby Soave wrote.
Others described the movie as too little, too late and predicted the opposite of Oscars in the movie’s future, honing in on lines like, “She’s disrupting.”
The Social Reckoning is set for a theatrical release on October 9.
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