Aaron Sorkin Says “It Never Occurred To Me” That Jesse Eisenberg Wouldn’t Want To Return For ‘The Social Reckoning’

As Aaron Sorkin logged back into Facebook for The Social Reckoning, his friend request to Jesse Eisenberg was denied.

The Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Social Network (2010) explained that “it never occurred” to him that Eisenberg wouldn’t want to reprise his portrayal of Meta mogul Mark Zuckerberg in the sequel, which premieres Oct. 9 in theaters.

“I knew what the studio was offering him to do it, but money does not motivate Jesse. It’s infuriating,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “If anything, money is a disincentive for him. It’s admirable. He’s very concerned about raising his kids with too much money.”

Sorkin said he was “just a couple of pages from being done” with the script for The Social Reckoning when he ran into the actor “and said, ‘I’m gonna be sending you something in a couple of weeks.’ And he smiled and nodded, and I sent it to him. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t wanna do it.”

Before ultimately casting Jeremy Strong as Zuckerberg last September, Sorkin spent a three-day weekend attempting to persuade Eisenberg to return.

“This is the only time I’ve written myself an outline. I don’t do it for the movies, but I did it for my conversations with Jesse,” he noted. “It was arguments for why he should do it. They included, ‘We already know you’re gonna be great because you were already once.’ You know, ‘Here are the great moments that you’re gonna get to play in the movie.’ And I laid it out for him.”

Sorkin added, “He just doesn’t like being conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore. He doesn’t like that he kinda resembles the guy physically; that role is probably what he’s most known for.”

After The Social Network (2010) recounted Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook and the controversy that ensued, Sorkin returned to write and direct the upcoming sequel, which focuses on a 2021 document leak that exposed harm Facebook caused on society.

In The Social Reckoning, Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) goes to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) with the social media platform’s most guarded secrets. Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Magnussen and Betty Gilpin also star.