Mindhunter Season 3 Isn’t Happening, Reaffirms David Fincher

After years of speculation, David Fincher has reaffirmed that Season 3 of Mindhunter will not happen. Speaking to French publication LeJournal du Dimanche, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker blamed his high filming costs and that Netflix made the final decision to shut down the series. After two seasons, Fincher moved on to designing his longtime passion project maleAnd The killer, implying that it was his decision to put the psychological crime series on hold indefinitely. But his latest comments suggest his commitments weren’t the only things holding back a possible third season of Mindhunter.

“I am very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we haven’t attracted enough viewership to justify such an investment,” Fincher said in the interview. “I don’t blame them, they took risks to get the show off the ground, empowered me to do male the way I wanted to do it, and they allowed me to venture down new paths with The killer. It is a blessing to be able to work with people capable of daring. The day our desires are no longer the same, we have to be honest about the separation.”

The production of Mindhunter was hectic, with the crew practically living on set (Pittsburgh, USA) for almost three years – six to seven months at a time. As Mindhunter’s de facto showrunner and perfectionist that he is, Fincher also threw out the original script for Mindhunter season 2 and started over, pushing the deadline even further. “It’s a 90-hour work week. It absorbs everything in your life. When I was done, I was pretty exhausted and I said, ‘I don’t know if I have it in me right now to break season three,’” he said in an interview in 2020. At the time, Netflix gave him the choice to complete male first, then decide to continue the arc. However, the filmmaker found it difficult from a budget standpoint, as Mindhunter had a niche on the platform.

Based on the eponymous 1995 true crime book, Mindhunter chronicled the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Va. – chronicling the lives of agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany ), alongside psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), as they embarked on a research project to interrogate and better understand the minds of serial killers. Much of the second season focused on the 1979-1981 Atlanta Child Murders, with the entire series featuring vignettes, teasing the appearance of Dennis Rader/The BTK Killer. While Ford and Tench caught wind of his nefarious activities through numbers, Mindhunter Season 3 was expected to focus on this enigmatic character.

In 2020, Fincher signed a four-year deal with Netflix to produce exclusive content for the platform – officially extending the longstanding partnership he had previously had. After Gone Girl, House of Cards was the next big thing Fincher took on — serving as director and executive producer, and making Netflix the first streaming series to rack up Primetime Emmy nominations. The filmmaker is now preparing to show his next feature on November 10 The killerwith Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton headlining.