It looks like it may be curtains for Mindhunter, Netflix’s critically acclaimed crime thriller that follows the FBI as they study the minds of serial killers. David Fincher (The Social Network), executive producer and director of the show, gave a revealing interview with Vulture hinting that the end has arrived. With season two premiering in summer 2019, things are looking grim for the show about notorious murderers.
Mindhunter first arrived on Netflix in October 2017. It was met with praise for its accuracy in portraying how the FBI came to create the term serial killer in the late 1970s after conducting interviews with several famous mass murderers. The series starred Jonathon Groff (Frozen), Holt McCallany (Blue Bloods), and Anna Torv (Fringe) as they worked for the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit.
In his interview with Vulture, Fincher cited that one of the reasons there’d be no season three had to do with the demanding schedule of television: “We had done the first season of Mindhunter without a showrunner, with me pinch-hitting on a week-by-week basis. We started getting scripts for the second season, and I ended up looking at what was written and deciding I didn’t like any of it. So we tossed it and started over. I brought in Courtenay Miles, an AD I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-showrunning Mindhunter. But it’s a 90-hour work week. It absorbs everything in your life. When I got done, I was pretty exhausted, and I said, “I don’t know if I have it in me right now to break season three.”
When asked by Vulture if Mindhunter had seen its last days, Fincher answered: “I think probably. Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show. We talked about “Finish Mank and then see how you feel,” but I honestly don’t think we’re going to be able to do it for less than I did season two. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.” This all but confirms that fans of the crime thriller will most likely never see a season three.
Though Fincher may be done with Mindhunter, he is still very much in the swing of things. He’s been busy making his upcoming film Mank. Extremely honest and sometimes scathing, it depicts the golden age of Hollywood in all of its grit and glory. Another partnership with Netflix, it stars Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) along with Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!) and will hit the streaming service December 4, 2020.