The sequel to David Fincher’s The Social Network, The Social Reckoning, is coming on October 9, and with it, a new star stepping into the shoes of its main character, Mark Zuckerberg. That man is Succession’s eldest boy himself, Jeremy Strong.

Strong recently spoke with GQ, where he discussed the role and following on from Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Facebook’s creator in the 2010 original. Upon accepting the part, Strong revealed that he emailed Zuckerberg himself, but wouldn’t reveal exactly what was written in it, or if he ever got a reply.

“I wrote to him — I’m probably going to give Sony an aneurysm — I sent him an email,” Strong revealed. “Just to say that I take this responsibility very seriously, and the veracity of it seriously, and I’m approaching it with respect.”

The recasting of the Facebook CEO came after Eisenberg turned down the chance to return to the character. "He simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore; he has his problems with the guy," Sorkin explained.

Strong went to tell GQ about why he didn’t share the same concerns. “It’s the kind of role that fascinates me. It’s like Sebastian [Stan] playing Trump. You are wearing the cape. It’s like Jeremy [Allen White] playing Bruce [Springsteen]. It’s like, the perils of that could not be greater. To commit to it, and to be free within it, is a great challenge… Listen, I know that he is a reviled person and not a popular person in our culture, but I do not think you should have an actor playing him who wants to set out to condemn him.”

As for why Zuckerberg may be considered reviled, well, take your pick. There are the mass layoffs at Meta in April. Or the fact that the company was tracking workers for AI training. Or the fact that it was fined hundreds of millions of dollars in relation to child safety fears on the internet. And that’s just in the last few months.

The Succession star is no stranger to committing heavily to roles, often immersing himself in every aspect of the character he’s portraying. For example, for The Social Reckoning, despite not being on any social media platform, he signed up for a Facebook account so he could read through all of Zuckerberg’s oldest posts, and watched all of the footage of Zuckerberg testifying before Congress “until my eyes fell out of my head”, the actor said.

The sequel is largely centered around Zuckerberg’s appearances before the US government following the 2021 leaks by whistleblowers Frances Haugen and Jeff Horwirtz, being played by Anora’s Mikey Madison and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, respectively.

This level of commitment is seemingly also being shown by Strong in regard to another of his upcoming projects, an adaptation of The Boys from Brazil, in which he’ll play a Nazi hunter. The GQ feature with the actor reveals that he spent a whole seven months speaking in a Polish accent during the movie’s production.

“He called me six or eight weeks ago, and without any introduction, he was just speaking as an Eastern European Nazi hunter, talking to me about the movie we had just made, without saying, ‘Hey, listen, this is going to sound strange, but…,’” said Aaron Sorkin, writer and director of The Social Reckoning.

We won’t have to wait long to see how all of this preparation has contributed to the success of The Social Reckoning, as it hits theaters on October 9. Whether Mark Zuckerberg will sit down to watch it is a completely different question.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.