David Fincher And Aaron Sorkin Have Discussed The Social Network 2, But Don't Hold Your Breath
With over a decade of retrospect, the story of Facebook, as told in David Fincher's "The Social Network," sounds quaint. There are no senate hearings about election-influencing data-sharing scams, nor any conversations about how the future of democracy, at one point or another, may have laid in Mark Zuckerberg's hands. The movie is about ambition and global popularity, yes, but it was made when Facebook hadn't yet reached the height of its tremendous influence. Fincher has since floated the idea of making a sequel, but in a new interview with The Guardian, the filmmaker hints that doing so would be tricky.
When asked about the potential for a "The Social Network" sequel during an interview for his new film "The Killer," Fincher was fairly reticent, answering only: "Aaron [Sorkin] and I have talked about it, but, um ... that's a can of worms." Fincher says nothing more about what exactly the can of worms might contain, and it's a statement that leaves more questions than answers. Given how powerful Zuckerberg has become in the past decade, is it possible that it's difficult to get the sign-off for another biography of him to be made? Is the original cast of "The Social Network," which included Jesse Eisenberg and a now wildly famous Andrew Garfield, not on board? We can't know for certain until Fincher decides to open up the can of worms, but past conversations about the sequel might offer at least one hint.
[Brad Pitt in Se7en voice] What's in the can?!
Back in 2019, screenwriter Sorkin spoke about the idea of a sequel, and it's one he floated again in 2020, with The Hollywood Reporter even noting that the writer was looking at the book "Zucked" by Roger McNamee as potential source material. Looking back, there's a clear problem in these conversations though: Scott Rudin. The now-infamous producer is at the center of Sorkin's comments about a "Social Network" sequel, as he's the one who apparently sent Sorkin multiple emails mentioning the idea of a sequel. "I do want to see it. And Scott wants to see it," Sorkin said in an episode of Happy Sad Confused Podcast in 2020. By 2021, though, Rudin had been accused of horrific workplace abuse by several parties, with accusers and witnesses claiming he regularly threw things at employees, created a culture of fear built around his anger, and at one point even pushed an assistant out of a moving vehicle.
With this in mind, it seems possible that at least part of the can of worms Fincher's referencing here could be related to the fact that the producer who was most interested in the sequel three years ago has since seemingly stepped away from the business in disgrace. It's ironic that a movie about one powerful, unlikeable man ended up tied to another, but it's also possible there are plenty of other factors at play preventing a "Social Network" sequel from happening. Hopefully, Fincher will someday share more context for his mysterious comment to The Guardian, but in the meantime, we'll take off our "f**k you flip-flops" for now and go back to listening to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' "Hand Covers Bruise" for the millionth time.