Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | October 9, 2026
The Social Reckoning doesn’t seem like it will be as glowingly received as its predecessor, The Social Network. Granted, it’s been 16 years since David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin told us the tale of the founding of Facebook, and the hellish corporate force now known as Meta has only grown more evil in stature in the interim period. Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his screenplay, has spent well over a decade fielding questions about his thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg’s evolution and whether or not he’d make a follow-up to the film, which ended before, you know, all of this. Perhaps he could make a film about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or its facilitation of a genocide in Myanmar.
Initially, he hadn’t wanted to write The Social Reckoning but was driven to do so when he read two books about the company’s growing power and prioritization of profit over wellbeing. He talked to Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who recounted seeing a friend who had become radicalized via the platform, and knew he had his movie.
The Social Reckoning is centred on Haugen and her leaking of documents in 2021 that proved Facebook was aware of how much its platform was ruining the planet and did nothing. Reviews have not been great, especially when compared to its predecessor (no Trent Reznor score, for one), but you can see why Sorkin would want to remind us all that Zuckerberg is maybe the worst person in the world. Tis the season for movies about real-life tech bro lunatics torching the earth because nobody likes them (see also Artificial, about Sam Altman, and Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary on Elon Musk.) And there’s still SO much crap to cover. Remember the Meta-verse? So, will Sorkin make another Zuckerberg movie? He’s not saying no.
“I didn’t think that there would be a second one. I wasn’t eager to get back in this world,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Whenever I’m done with something, I’m always like Sisyphus at the bottom of the mountain again. This movie opens Oct. 9. On Oct. 10, I’m going to be at the bottom of the mountain, and I will have no idea. So if a good story comes along and it takes place at Facebook, sure.”
The question was prompted by “that recent image of Zuckerberg at the White House with the other AI bros.” When asked if it made his “blood boil to know that your life’s work has been fed into their AI models in order to generate a poor imitation”, Sorkin replied, “Yes, but what drives me crazier is the fact that we need laws passed, and it’s not going to happen as long as those tech bros, the billionaire tech oligarchs, are financing the campaigns for the people who have to make the laws.” He’s reasonably “optimistic” about AI “because think the audience is going to reject it […] Our relationship to art is illogical, and I think we’re going to find out that the human element is important to us.”
I have a lot of feelings on all these biopics about tech bro a-holes we seem to be overwhelmed by in 2026 (there’s also The Altruists, the upcoming Netflix miniseries about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.) None of them are puff-pieces or defences of these charisma vacuums with more money than soul, but I do wonder how much we have left to gleam from such projects. We know that Zuckerberg is a callous, hyper-ambitious brat who had one good idea and thinks empathy is for losers. What do we even do with that? All of these men are tough to watch for longer than five minutes, even when they’re played by the likes of Jeremy Strong or Andrew Garfield. Are such films good to just remind us of the damage done, or simply a fun excuse to boo at the villains?
I can see Sorkin wanting to stick with this story, if only because there’s so much ground to cover. Zuckerberg’s big swing towards Trump and the Joe Rogan crowd, and the growth of the billionaire crowd that has monopolized media through sheer greed, regardless of competence or innovation, is undoubtedly interesting. Would we want to see it in a few years time as Meta finds new ways to poison the planet, pervert glasses and all? Who knows? But they should definitely change actors again, just for the sake of it. My choice for Zuckerberg III: Paul Dano.
