Aaron Sorkin Prepping ‘The Social Network’ Sequel, Says He Blames Facebook For January 6 Capitol Attack

Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin has reiterated his plans to write a sequel to his acclaimed drama, The Social Network, examining the origins of Facebook, one that will hone in on the social media platform’s impact on U.S. democracy.

On a recent episode of entertainment business podcast The Town, taped live in Washington, D.C., Sorkin told Matthew Belloni and Peter Hamby, “Look, yeah, I’ll be writing about this. I blame Facebook for January 6.”

When asked to elaborate on how the project will tackle the events of that infamous day, which saw a mob of supporters of then-U.S. president Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol Building, he said matter-of-factly, “You’re going to need to buy a movie ticket.”

Sorkin did share, though, that he’s been “trying” to crack the project as a film specifically. “Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible, because that is what will increase engagement. That is what will get you to, what they call inside the hallways of Facebook, ‘the infinite scroll,” Sorkin said. “There’s supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isn’t; there’s just growth.”

Sorkin has repeatedly alluded to the prospect of a Social Network sequel in recent years, telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2020 that he intended to examine “the dark side of Facebook” but stressing, “I will only write it if [original filmmaker David Fincher] directs it. If Billy Wilder came back from the grave and said he wanted to direct it, I’d say I’d only do it with David.”

Sorkin again teased the project in a 2021 interview with our sister trade, The Hollywood Reporter. “I think what has been going on with Facebook these last few years is a story very much worth telling,” he said, “and there is a way to tell it as a follow up to The Social Network, and that’s as much as I know.”

Inspired by the Ben Mezrich book The Accidental Billionaires, the original Social Network delved into the founding of Facebook and the legal battles that followed. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and more, the film grossed over $224M worldwide and won multiple Oscars, including one for Sorkin in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay.