Jesse Eisenberg apparently didn't want to reprise his role as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning due to "problems" he has with the co-founder of Facebook.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Sorkin shared that he made a sustained push to get Eisenberg back as the Zuck for the upcoming spiritual successor to 2010's The Social Network. The role, Sorkin said, "felt like it belonged to him, and he was certainly battle-tested" — but Eisenberg declined.
According to Sorkin, Eisenberg, “simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore, that he has his problems with the guy. He doesn't like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say 'I'm CEO, bitch' for him to sign."
Eisenberg has made his feelings about the real Zuckerberg abundantly clear in recent years. In 2025, Eisenberg revealed during an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Today that he wanted to put some distance between the two.
"I don't want to think of myself as associated with somebody like that," Eisenberg said. "It's not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I'm a great golfer. It's like this guy that's doing … things that are problematic. Taking away the fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened."
"I'm concerned just as a person who reads a newspaper," he added. "I don't think about, 'Oh, I played the guy in the movie' … I'm a human being, and you read these things, and these people have like billions upon billions of dollars, like more money than, you know, any human person has ever amassed, and what are they doing with it?"
Months later, Eisenberg spoke about not appearing in The Social Reckoning during an interview on The Today Show. When asked why he wouldn’t appear in The Social Reckoning, he explained that his decision had "nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be. Really, truthfully. When you play a character, at some point, you feel maybe you’ve grown into something."
"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," Eisenberg said.
Jeremy Strong will star in the film as Mark Zuckerberg. Formally attached to the film last July, the actor told Sorkin that he’d be interested in playing the role at a 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
The Social Reckoning centers on whistleblower Frances Haugen, played by Mikey Madison, and Wall Street Journal journalist Jeff Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White, as they expose Facebook's internal research tied to political violence. It opens on October 9.
