Jesse Eisenberg Breaks Silence on Jeremy Strong Replacing Him in ‘The Social Reckoning’
A Real Pain’s actor has been shockingly replaced by Jeremy Strong in The Social Network’s upcoming sequel, but Eisenberg feels it might be time to move on — for both him and his fans.
In the world of never-ending remakes and sequels, the news about movies getting yet another continuation has become more annoying than ever, but in some cases this means nothing but a dream coming true for millions of fans.
The level of excitement was high when a sequel to David Fincher’s The Social Network was announced several months ago, with the original movie’s writer Aaron Sorkin now also directing the second part of the story.
Titled The Social Reckoning, the future film now continues filming until December, but without any involvement of Jesse Eisenberg who portrayed Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
The actor, however, doesn’t feel the same way as the original movie’s fans about the matter.
Jesse Eisenberg Says He’s “Grown Into Something Else” After Starring in ‘The Social Network’
It’s safe to say Fincher’s movie helped Eisenberg reach the stardom and gain worldwide recognition that eventually brought him many more other acclaimed projects, including their own directorial works.
Still, despite being forever grateful to The Social Network for framing his acting career, Eisenberg wasn’t ready to come back to the movie anyway, now being totally focused on upcoming exciting projects of his own.
“Listen, for reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be, really, truthfully, but when you play a character, you feel, at some point, you've grown into something else”, the actor revealed during his recent appearance on the Today show (via The Hollywood Reporter).
He also specified that, even not being on board, he believed Sorkin’s movie will be just as good as the original one.
“But it's a really wonderful movie. 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 added.
Jeremy Strong Hasn’t Talked With Jesse Eisenberg About Mark Zuckerberg’s Role
Now set to take over Eisenberg’s role as the scandalous co-founder of Facebook, Succession’s star Jeremy Strong seems to be doing his best to create a completely new version of the character in the future sequel.
During his appearance at the Academy Museum Gala several weeks ago, Strong was asked whether he had reached out to Eisenberg to discuss some aspects of his character with the original actor.
“No, I think that has nothing to do with what I’m going to do”, Strong replied, suggesting that his portrayal will be something of his own in The Social Reckoning.
However, the actor also shared some details with The Hollywood Reporter, saying he’s more than happy to make yet another movie with Aaron Sorkin.
“It’s one of the great scripts I’ve ever read. It speaks to our time, it touches the third rail of everything happening in our world. It’s a great character — fascinating, complex — and I’m approaching it with great care and empathy and objectivity”, Strong added.
The Social Reckoning will be released worldwide on October 9, 2026.
