Jesse Eisenberg is not returning to reprise the role of Mark Zuckerberg for Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to The Social Network and now we know why.

Many were surprised to see Succession star Jeremy Strong taking over the role after Jesse received an Academy Award nomination for his work on the first film. Sorkin also won an Oscar for his screenplay.

This time around, Sorkin is back as write and director, but Jesse wasn’t interested.

According to Sorkin, he spent three days trying to get the actor to return.

“I felt like it belonged to him, and he was certainly battle-tested,” he told Vanity Fair. “He 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.”

According to Vanity Fair, they added that it was at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party that Sorkin first tried to get Jesse in to read the script. “Just a few minutes later, at that same party, he ran into Jeremy Strong, who asked Sorkin what he had been up to, and Sorkin told him about the script. Strong indicated that if Eisenberg wasn’t interested, he would be.”

Jesse has talked about his distaste for being associated with Zuckerberg before, previously talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today about it.

“It’s not like I played a great golfer or something and now people think I’m a great golfer,” he said last year. “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.”

The Social Reckoning will be out in theaters on October 9, 2026. Watch the teaser trailer!

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