After years of discussing it off and on, The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin is reportedly writing a sequel to the award-winning 2010 drama that depicted the rise of Facebook, and this time, it seems he’s also planning to direct, according to Deadline.
2010’s The Social Network, which starred Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg, and Justin Timberlake, was written by Sorkin based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, was directed by David Fincher. It scored big at the box office, raking in $226 million across its theatrical run, and was praised by moviegoers and critics alike, leading to eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including a Best Adapted Screenplay prize for Sorkin.
The new film, reportedly titled The Social Network 2, will not be a direct chronological sequel to the first film, but will instead focus on adapting the Facebook Files, a 2021 article by the Wall Street Journal which summed up documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen detailing Facebook’s (by then renamed Meta) complicity in harms caused by the platform.
According to Deadline, the scope of the film will go beyond the major subject of the Facebook Files, the platform’s involvement in and influence on the 2020 election and its aftermath, to touch expansively on the content of the report.
The Social Network 2 will reportedly be produced by Todd Black, Peter Rice, Sorkin himself, and Stuart Besser for Sony Pictures. It’s unclear whether anyone from the original film will return, though it’s not unlikely that Jesse Eisenberg, who starred as Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg in the first film, could be involved in the sequel.
Jesse Eisenberg tried to meet Mark Zuckerberg while filming The Social Network, against studio advice.