LOSER: The Social Reckoning Teaser Trailer: Somehow, Zuckerberg returned. Sony Pictures’ first look at Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network sequel was met with praise for Jeremy Strong‘s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg — particularly nailing the tech titan’s voice. But the extremely self-serious trailer (watch it below) drew mockery online and unflattering, if rather premature, comparisons to its predecessor.
Opening in what looks like Middle-earth, Mikey Madison‘s Facebook whistleblower tells Jeremy Allen White‘s reporter, “I want to make something clear…” and then proceeds to deliver a nearly incomprehensible sentence (“IHaveaHuncYourNottaFanofFacebook”) that the internet has been having fun with. The footage includes Strong’s Zuckerberg turning into a malfunctioning android and concludes with a somber White saying of Madison’s character, “She’s disrupting” — which has to be the biggest trailer groaner since Felicity Jones declared “I rebel” in the Rogue One teaser. The footage is also weirdly stuffed with popping camera flashbulb effects as if the film was set in the 1950s.
Story-wise, The Social Reckoning might have a challenge. The social media hellscape has become so much worse since the film’s 2021 setting that fretting over the toxic and addictive algorithm used by your dad’s preferred news feed now seems more quaint than pressing. The Social Network had such a breezy and engaging fleetness, a quality one associates with Sorkin’s deft writing. So it’s odd this sequel — sorry, “companion piece,” per the studio — directed by Sorkin instead of David Fincher, feels so deathly solemn.
