Jesse Eisenberg wants to return as Mark Zuckerberg for 'The Social Network 2'

Jesse Eisenberg has admitted that he would jump at the chance to play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg again in a potential follow-up to 2010’s The Social Network.

Eisenberg earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Zuckerberg in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s critically acclaimed take on the rise of Facebook.

However, since its release Zuckerberg has become a much more divisive figure thanks to the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data scandal, the revelations about how the website uses its data, and its role in the 2016 presidential election.

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This provoked Indiewire to recently ask Eisenberg whether he would want to return to Zuckerberg. “Oh, yeah. To play a good role in a popular thing is very rare. This was an opportunity to play a complicated character that you’d normally play onstage or an art film, but on a big scale. For me, that was incredibly fortunate.”

Unfortunately Eisenberg hasn’t actually been approached about a follow-up, as he added, “I’ve only heard about it in interviews this week. Because I don’t Google my name, this is the only way I hear about my future projects.”

“Sorkin is a genius, and if he chooses to write about something, I’ll obviously be interested. But I am not aware of either the project, or even the current controversy of the company.”

Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for scribing The Social Network, was much more concrete with his thoughts on a sequel earlier this year when he spoke to the Associated Press.

“I know a lot more about Facebook in 2005 than I do in 2018, but I know enough to know that there should be a sequel,” he declared.

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“A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends with settling the lawsuit from the Winklevoss Twins and Eduardo Saverin. … I’ve gotten more than one email from [producer Scott Rudin] with an article attached saying, ‘Isn’t it time for a sequel?’”

The fact that The Social Network earned just under $225 million from its $40 million budget as well as eight Academy Awards nominations, of which it won three for Best Adapted Screening, Best Original Score and Best Film Editing, means plenty of people would want to see it, too.