David Fincher Says He Doesn’t Know if It Makes Sense to Continue Mindhunter

Late last year, news emerged that Season Three of Mindhunter would be delayed indefinitely, due in large part to creator David Fincher focusing on other projects, with the producer now revealing that the production costs and schedule of pulling off the series makes pursuing a new season seem like a pointless endeavor. Anyone familiar with Fincher’s filmmaking techniques knows that he goes to great lengths to capture exactly what he wants, even if it requires dozens of takes or investing deep into the history of era-appropriate set dressing, with the filmmaker himself even admitting that making one season of the series would take an investment of multiple years, despite its viewership being smaller than other Netflix series.

“I don’t know if it makes sense to continue,” Fincher shared with Variety. “It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost.”

The series is based on the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by Joe Penhall, which chronicled the real-life beginnings of criminal profiling. The first season debuted in 2017 while the second debuted in 2019, a longer break between seasons than many other Netflix series. Part of the delays with Season Two was that Fincher fired the initial showrunner and threw out eight scripts, requiring production to nearly start from scratch.

Another trend that Fincher fans have come to expect is that he never shies away from gruesome subject matter, with the filmmaker noting that he wasn’t especially excited to return to the world of some of history’s most vile killers.

“I certainly needed some time away,” Fincher pointed out. “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 isn’t ruling out a third season, however, as he confirmed that he had hoped to travel far enough into the future to tackle contemporary crimes.

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

Stay tuned for details on the future of Mindhunter.

Would you like a third season of the series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!