Succession star Jeremy Strong is the frontrunner to portray Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network Part II, Deadline reports.
Strong would be replacing Jesse Eisenberg, who portrayed Zuckerberg the first time around in 2010 and received an Oscar nod for the role. Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin will both write and direct the sequel.
Deadline reported Wednesday that Sorkin’s other top casting choices include Oscar-winning newcomer Mikey Madison and The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White. Though no formal offers have been made, White is being eyed to play Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horowitz, alongside Madison as the whistleblower behind the files, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen.
Part II will reportedly be more of a follow-up than a straight sequel, skipping years ahead of Facebook’s origins to The Wall Street Journal‘s 2021 “Facebook Files” investigation.
The series of articles reveal what the Journal called Facebook’s “flaws that cause harm.” The articles implicate Zuckerberg specifically, and “how broadly Facebook’s problems are known inside the company, up to the chief executive himself,” the publication wrote at the time.
Sorkin will undoubtedly have a scathing take. He previously told Puck‘s Matt Belloni last April when he inadvertently revealed that a sequel was in the works, “I blame Facebook for January 6.”
He continued on The Town podcast at the time, “Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm and tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible because that is what will increase engagement. That is what will get you to, what they call inside the hallways of Facebook, ‘the infinite scroll.’”
Earlier this year, Eisenberg admitted that he “hates” being associated with Zuckerberg due to his memorable performance in the original film.
“It’s not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I’m a great golfer,” the actor said. “It’s like this guy that’s doing things that are problematic—taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened.”
Strong, assuming he seals the deal to play the older version of Zuckerberg, would be coming off of his turn as Donald Trump’s fixer Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, which earned him an Oscar nomination this past year.
