At the movies, tech founders like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are in their villain era

Movies about Sam Altman, Elizabeth Holmes, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk are all coming out in 2026.

Neon; Philip Pacheco/Getty Images; Sony; BI "The Social Reckoning" leads a wave of new films about tech founders like Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman.

Hollywood's obsession with this subgenre reflects our anxiety about who holds power.

Get ready for some techno-pessimism at the movies.

When David Fincher's Facebook origin story "The Social Network" premiered 16 years ago, it delighted critics with its witty dialogue and nuanced character work.

Aaron Sorkin was awarded the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and Jesse Eisenberg was hailed for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as an aggrieved yet triumphant prodigy.

Playing a rising tech titan earned Eisenberg an Oscar nomination and made him synonymous with Zuck — not a bad thing in 2010, when Zuckerberg was crowned Time's Person of the Year .

A lot has changed since then.

These days, Eisenberg would rather not be associated with the tech wonder whose wealth, influence, and impunity have more in common with that of an oligarch than a scrappy college kid.

Eisenberg declined to reprise the role for Sorkin's new pseudo-sequel, "The Social Reckoning," and Jeremy Strong took on the part instead.

"He simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore," Sorkin told Vanity Fair of Eisenberg.

"He doesn't like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say 'I'm CEO, bitch' for him to sign." "The Social Reckoning," out Friday, reflects Eisenberg's change of heart about Zuckerberg on a macro scale.

Gone is the smug, impish charm of Eisenberg's hoodie-clad Harvard dropout .

Now, Strong's Zuck has tailored suits and the severity of a tyrant.