Mindhunter: David Fincher doesn’t think Netflix series will continue

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Out of all the Netflix original series' that broke into the pop-culture consciousness, Mindhunter is still my favorite of the bunch. Executive produced by David Fincher and created by Joe Penhall, the show revolved around FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), as they operate the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. By interviewing imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, they hope to apply this knowledge to solve ongoing cases. It's was an intriguing and engaging series that has run for two seasons so far but that second season was released in August of 2019. While Netflix hasn't outright canceled the series, they did mention in January of this year that the show was on indefinite hold. As David Fincher has been making the rounds promoting his new Netflix film MANK, the director reveals why he thinks the show won't continue.

During a talk with "Variety", Fincher stated that "I don't know if it makes sense to continue" and that "It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost." Considering how popular the show seemed to be from an outside perspective, it makes me wonder what numbers the show was really getting but Netflix, like all the streaming services, isn't exactly transparent with their figures.

Fincher went on to explain that the second season of the show was a nightmare to produce. The director fired the initial showrunner and threw out eight scripts, as well as the "show bible," which outlined all the details of the series' universe. Fincher even went as far as moving to Pittsburgh to oversee the production personally. It got to the point that even when Fincher wasn't directing an episode, he was still overseeing how it was run. 

The intention was for Mindhunter to have a new series appear every 12 to 14 months but production headaches led to a two-year delay between seasons:

"I certainly needed some time away. We had all hands on deck to finish season two and we didn't have a ton of scripts and a ton of outlines and a bible standing by for season three. I'll admit I was a little bit like 'I don't know that I'm ready to spend another two years in the crawl space."

Fincher does leave a little bit of hope that we could possibly get a season three now that he has had an indefinite hiatus away from the show to reignite his passion for the material. Season one was set from 1977 to 1980 and notorious serial killer Edmund Kemper was assisting the FBI duo in getting into the mind of a killer while season two was based on the real case of Wayne Williams, who was charged for the murder of two adult men but was never found guilty of killing at least 28 children and adolescents. Fincher says he would like the series to end with the FBI taking Dennis Rader, the real-life BTK Strangler played by Sonny Valicenti, into custody.

"At some point, I'd love to revisit it. The hope was to get all the way up. to the late '90s, early 2000's, hopefully, get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader's house."

Fincher recently inked a four-year deal with Netflix and I'd like to just throw it out there that the third season of Mindhunter should definitely be a part of that. Would YOU like to see another season of Mindhunter?