Jesse Eisenberg has explained why he will not be reprising his role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning. The Oscar-nominated actor, who played the Facebook founder and CEO in 2010's The Social Network, will not be returning as the billionaire in Aaron Sorkin's upcoming sequel. Instead, an older version of the character will be portrayed by Succession actor Jeremy Strong. During an appearance on the Today show on Thursday, Eisenberg was asked why he said no to the sequel. He originally tried to brush off the question with a joke before presenter Craig Melvin pressed him for an answer. "Listen, for reasons that have nothing to do with how amazing that movie will be, really, truthfully," Eisenberg said. "But when you play a character, you feel, at some point, you've grown into something else." When asked if he felt like he'd outgrown the character, he replied, "Yeah, something. But it's a really wonderful movie. I'm friends with Aaron Sorkin, who wrote and is directing this movie, and all of the reasons that I am not in it are completely unrelated to how brilliant it will be." In addition to Strong, The Social Reckoning will star Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White. Taking place 17 years after the events of the first film, the drama will follow a young Facebook engineer and a Wall Street Journal reporter who work together to blow the whistle on the social network's biggest secrets. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Strong noted that he hadn't spoken to Eisenberg about playing Zuckerberg. He explained, "I think that has nothing to do with what I'm going to do." According to IMDb, the project is currently in production ahead of a release in October 2026.