Jeremy Strong in Talks to Play Mark Zuckerberg in THE SOCIAL NETWORK PART II

Tony Award winner Jeremy Strong is currently the top choice to play META CEO in Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network: Part II, reports indicate. Jessie Eisenberg, who played the Facebook founder in the hit 2008 film, has reportedly turned down the role. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to share the news.

If cast, Strong is expected to appear alongside Jeremy Allen White and Oscar-winner Mikey Madison, both of whom are circling other roles in the follow-up. Having written the Academy Award-winning screenplay for the first film, Sorkin is returning as writer for Part II, now taking over directorial duties from David Fincher.

The Social Network, which detailed the rise of the social media platform Facebook, was released in 2008 to much praise and accolades, including three Academy Awards from a total of nine nominations. The movie starred Jesse Eisenberg, Tony-winner Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. Part II would chronicle events that happened in 2021 when private company files were leaked by Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen.

In 2024, Strong starred in Broadway's An Enemy of the People, for which he won his first Tony Award. Onscreen, he is known for his role in Succession and recently played Roy Cohn in The Apprentice. He will appear as Bruce Springsteen's longtime manager Jon Landau, in the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere with Jeremy Allen White.

Sorkin is an Academy Award and Emmy-winning screenwriter, director, and renowned playwright who made his Broadway debut with A Few Good Men. His subsequent film adaptation was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Picture. Sorkin won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network and received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay, Moneyball.

Sorkin also created and produced The West Wing, which won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, The Newsroom, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Sports Night, and the stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. More recently, he wrote and directed the film Being the Ricardos and revised the book for Lerner and Loewe's Camelot for the 2023 Broadway revival.