Mindhunter is off the case at Netflix for the foreseeable future.
More than a year after the crime drama’s second season dropped, executive producer David Fincher told Vulture that the series is “probably” done for good.
“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show,” said Fincher, who’s promoting his upcoming film Mank (which releases on Netflix Dec. 4). “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 2. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.”
When asked whether Mindhunter could eventually return for a third season, a Netflix spokesperson told Vulture, “Maybe in five years.”
Chances of a renewal already seemed slim as of this past January, when stars Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany and Anna Torv were released from their contracts, due to Fincher’s busy schedule with Mank and the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. The show was not formally cancelled at the time, but a potential third season was put on hold indefinitely.
Fincher also shared with Vulture that Mindhunter‘s production process took a toll on him, making it even more unlikely that the show would return.
“We had done the first season of Mindhunter without a showrunner, with me pinch-hitting on a week-by-week basis,” he revealed. “I brought in Courtenay Miles, an AD I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-showrunning Mindhunter [for Season 2]. 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 3.'”
The psychological thriller respectively starred Groff, McCallany and Torv as two FBI agents and a psychologist who work in the bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit and attempt to get a better understanding of serial killers’ motivations. Season 1 was released in October 2017, with Season 2 following nearly two years later in August 2019.
