Mindhunter spoilers follow.
When the second season of crime thriller Mindhunter hit Netflix in August 2019, fans wasted no time tearing through all nine episodes of the David Fincher-produced series at lightning speed before quickly looking ahead to the show's future.
Last year, it looked like a third season could finally be on its way when Netflix teased that a special David Fincher announcement was going to happen on October 13.
Fans speculated it would be news that a third season of Mindhunter was about to go into production, but hopes were quickly dashed when it turned out that Fincher's new project was instead the docuseries Voir – "a series of visual essays celebrating cinema".
Mindhunter fans shouldn't give up all hope of a third season, however.
There are still plenty of real-life serial killers for the series to focus on, and for FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) to investigate with the help of psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv).
Plus Fincher originally planned to make five seasons of Mindhunter, so there is the chance that he could return to the series.
Fincher has certainly been busy with numerous productions since filming season two of Mindhunter in 2018. He directed the Netflix movie Mank, which won two Academy Awards in April 2021 (for Cinematography and Production Design), produced the second season of animated series Love, Death and Robots and, as well as producing Voir this year, the director/producer is also planning to direct an adaptation of the graphic novel The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender.
It's understandable, then, that on January 15, 2020, Netflix told TVLine that Mindhunter season three is currently on indefinite hold (not technically cancelled – just that the cast and crew were released from their contracts), in part due to David Fincher's busy schedule.
"He may revisit Mindhunter again in the future," said a rep at the time, "but in the meantime felt it wasn't fair to the actors to hold them from seeking other work while he was exploring new work of his own."
But actor Holt McCallany had previously told Pop Culture that he's not only hopeful of a third season, but of two more on top of that.
"We are hopeful that we will get to do the whole five seasons because the audience seems to have really responded to the show, people really like the show," he said.
We all know that Netflix isn't afraid to cancel big titles, but canning Mindhunter could well be the final straw for many of the platform's subscribers.
But like we said, "on hold" doesn't mean cancelled, and Fincher himself said in November 2020 that he isn't finished with the show just yet.
"At some point I'd love to revisit it," he told Variety. "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."
Those comments came after an interview with Vulture in which he sounded less positive. "We had done the first season of Mindhunter without a showrunner, with me pinch-hitting on a week-by-week basis," said Fincher.
"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. 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... Mindhunter was a lot for me."
Related: Netflix is about to make a huge mistake dropping Mindhunter - here's why
He added: "I think probably [it's done]. Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show. 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."
More recently, Small Screen reported that it had word from a source that it hadn't been ruled out: "All I can really tell you about Mindhunter is that conversations between Netflix and Fincher are ongoing. They are discussing the possibility of bringing the show back for a third season.
"It's still very early days, but Fincher sounds more upbeat about the project."
Here's hoping Fincher doesn't wait too long to get his crack team back together, or they may be too busy to return to the serial killer series for another season.
While star McCallany has focused on movies since the last season of Mindhunter (you can see him in Guillermo Del Toro's thriller Nightmare Alley), Anna Torv is committed to filming the HBO series The Last Of Us and Jonathan Groff will be busy reuniting with his Frozen voice co-star Kristen Bell for the animated musical Molly and the Moon.
Hopefully both cast and director will find time to give the fans what they want and revisit Mindhunter in the not-too-distant future.
While we wait, here's everything you need to know about a potential Mindhunter season three.
Mindhunter season 3 potential release date: When will it premiere?
Season one exploded onto screens all the way back in October 2017, but we then had to wait until August 2019 for the second chapter, which was nothing short of agonising.
The level of detail and research required to make Mindhunter is extensive, so even if it does come back – big if, as detailed above – we're in for a very long wait.
Mindhunter season 3 cast: Who's in it?
If we get a renewal, we'd expect to see Ford (Groff) and Tench (Holt McCallany) back on our screens.
"We are kind of like the odd couple," Groff told TV Insider. "I think. Holt and I had so much fun together playing with that odd couple dynamic, because he and I – both as our characters and not as our characters – are so different in so many ways, and we had so much fun playing with that relationship."
They would likely appear alongside psychology professor/FBI consultant Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), Special Agent Gregg Smith (Joe Tuttle), Bill's wife Nancy (Stacey Roca), FBI Chief Ted Gunn (Michael Cerveris), Bill and Nancy's adopted son Brian (Zachary Scott Ross), and the 'BTK killer' Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti).
Groff is definitely keen to return.
"There's such a reverence for Fincher. I can't imagine that every single person wouldn't jump at the opportunity to go back," the actor told The Hollywood Reporter.
"To me, Mindhunter is Fincher. The whole experience for me was the honour and privilege of getting to work with him. So I'm not a sports person really at all, but it's like the [1997-1998] Chicago Bulls. Do you go for another season with the team? Or do you just do what the general manager says?
"But if the general manager believes that it should stop, you have to go with the general manager. And this is how I feel with David. The minute he says he wants to do another one, I'll be there in a second. But I trust his vision and his instincts, and so I leave it always in his hands, as ever.
"The world of Fincher is unlike any other set I have ever and will ever be on. I’m absolutely certain. There’s a bittersweet feeling when you're on another set because it's exciting to be in the mind of another director or another experience or another TV show, but there's something really special about what David does."
And Groff is probably hoping that Damon Herriman's Charles Manson will be back, too. Especially after seeing his performance as the same character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
"It was so cool. It was so cool to see the similarities and the differences. And like you said, there are so many years in between those two characterisations. And he is a master class."
"His performance as Manson was incredible in the Tarantino movie, just like it was over the course of pretty much a week that we shot that interview with Manson on Mindhunter. Every take. From the first rehearsal to the final take, he was an endless well of creative inspiration. That guy's a genius."
There's also a possibility we could see Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) once again, as well as a whole host of other serial killers that Holden and Bill haven't yet interviewed.
Special Agent Jim Barney (Albert Jones) appeared briefly in season one when he interviewed for a job opening in the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit, but was pipped to the post by Gregg.
He did, however, feature heavily in season two during the Atlanta Child Murders investigation. Whether we'll see him again remains to be seen.
It feels unlikely that Holden's former love interest Debbie Mitford (Hannah Gross), who didn't pop up at all in season two, or Lauren Glazier, who played Kay Manz, the bartender Wendy had a brief relationship with, will return.
Mindhunter season 3 episodes: How many will there be?
The first season had ten episodes, while season two went one fewer.
If there's a third, we'd expect something in the same range.
Cornerstone Digital Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
Cornerstone Digital Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
Mindhunter season 3 serial killers: Who will feature?
The first two seasons have included a number of serial killers, each with their individual stories, compulsions and modus operandi.
Alongside Ed Kemper and Dennis Rader, we've seen the likes of Jerome 'Jerry' Brudos, Montie Rissell, Richard Speck and David Berkowitz (Son of Sam).
McCallany was due to meet with Berkowitz for research purposes, but at the last minute, that opportunity was taken away from him.
"That was very disappointing to me," he told The Independent. "I wanted to sit in front of him and have the experience of looking in his eyes to try and make a determination in my own mind of whether this was the same man who murdered those people in the 1970s. My instinct is it probably isn't.
"There isn't a tremendous amount of support in the law enforcement community for the idea of rehabilitation, so it's about putting myself in the situation so I can get the fullest understanding of who these people were."
If season three gets the go-ahead, Rader will definitely be back, and there's a chance Kemper will also. But what about the show's new recruits?
Viewers have been speculating about which serial killers could make an appearance and Ted Bundy's name has been floated.
Season two was set between 1980-81, during which time Bundy was in prison. He remained behind bars for nine years until he was executed via the electric chair in 1989 at the State Prison in Raiford, Florida after eventually admitting to 30 murders, although it's believed that he was responsible for more.
Related: Did you spot this Mindhunter link in Netflix's Ted Bundy Tapes?
There's also a thread on Reddit, in which people cast their own predictions.
The likes of 'Butcher Baker' Robert Hansen, 'Green River Killer' Gary Ridgway, 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez and 'Milwaukee Cannibal' Jeffrey Dahmer are all names that have been mentioned.
Serial killers were prolific in the 1980s – according to the BBC, "There were at least 200 such murderers operating in the United States alone" – so Fincher certainly has a wealth of high-profile names to choose from.
But which subjects will be selected depends on season three's timeframe.
Of course, if we want real insight into where the show might be heading, the best place to go is John Douglas, the criminal profiler who provides the basis for Holden Ford. And there are still a few loose threads hanging.
"By 1981, not only did I have the Atlanta child killings, but I had the Tylenol murders," Douglas told Vulture. "We had the Unabomber case up in Chicago. Then we had other cases, Buffalo's .22-caliber killer."
Whether he realises it or not, the killers Douglas mentions would combine to create a pretty satisfying dramatic arc for season three.
The Unabomber wasn't caught until 1996, one year after Douglas retired from the FBI, so while he'd be interesting as a subplot, he couldn't form the main arc. He's probably the most 'famous' (infamous?) of the potential options, though.
The Tylenol murders weren't actually solved, but they did inspire copycat killers who were investigated and with their cases resolved, the idea of a killer who poisoned his victims (and inspired such a wave of other killers) makes it a unique case for the Mindhunter gang to investigate (as opposed to all the sexually-motivated crimes they've covered so far). Again, a great subplot.
However, the main arc could go to the .22-caliber killer Douglas mentions. The 10-victim serial murderer was motivated by race hate, which would allow the show to further explore wider social tensions. Significantly, the killer – Joseph Christopher – was actually caught in 1981, which would make for a satisfying ending to the season.
It should be noted that not every aspect involving the series' serial killers is based on real events.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Douglas spoke about the infamous 'grab' scene between Ed Kemper and Holden Ford (the character actually inspired by Douglas).
"Kemper would never have done that," he confirmed.
What does have some semblance of truth, though, is Holden's physical reaction to the stress of his job.
As Mindhunter's second season opens, Ford is strapped to a hospital bed having suffered severe panic attacks (brought on by his close encounter with Kemper).
"You saw in the last episode of the first season how it affected Holden Ford, the character who portrays me, and that's true," Douglas said. "Some of the back story is different... [But] the anxiety now that Holden Ford is experiencing was me. Because by the time I'm 38 years of age I'll nearly die on a case, on the Green River murder case, I'll collapse in my hotel room with viral encephalitis.
"[I was] in a coma for a week and came out of it paralysed and had to go through five months of rehabilitation."
He also revealed that Mindhunter's depiction of "the process of the Bureau" was accurate, as was the fact that the FBI was originally against the work. It is also true that the unit was, initially, put down in the basement.
Mindhunter season 3 plot: What will happen?
Aside from the serial killers who play a key role in each season, the central cast of Mindhunter also have some issues of their own which will continue to be explored in future episodes.
One twist that holds particularly powerful ramifications for season three revolves around Bill Tench's son Brian and the child murder he witnessed midway through season two.
While he didn't actively participate in the boy's death, he kept the murder a secret, choosing not to tell his parents or even run for help when the killing took place. As if that wasn't disturbing enough, Brian also suggested that the boy's lifeless body should be hung on a cross, presumably to try and bring him back to life.
Just like in real life, the impact of this trauma isn't so easily resolved, and given how Brian withdrew into himself more and more in the weeks that followed, it's clear these events will continue to impact Bill and the Tench family in season three as well.
Chatting to The Wrap about the strained relationship Bill has with his wife Nancy and son Brian, McCallany said: "I based those scenes on my own dad. He was a man of that era. In some of the ways [he] was an absent father in the way Bill is an absent father."
At the end of season two, the FBI agent returns home to discover that the pair of them have left home.
His father was Michael McAloney, a Tony Award-winning producer behind the 1970 Broadway version of Borstal Boy. But according to the Mindhunter star, Michael's life mirrored Bill's in that he was always pulled in two different directions.
"He spent years working for the Tony. My father was hanging out in Irish bars with guys like [Tench] and people from the IRA. It was something that my mother didn't understand and didn't have any appreciation of," he said.
"She eventually left him without a word."
Filming the empty house scene, McCallany channelled what he believed would have been his father's own emotions to his acting, noting how "you're not even given the courtesy of a goodbye".
Mindhunter season 3 trailer: When can I watch it?
With season three currently unconfirmed, we don't even know if we're getting a new trailer at this point.
But if it does arrive (usually in the month leading up to the premiere), we'll pop it right here, just for you.
Mindhunter seasons one and two are now available to stream on Netflix.
Netflix/Left Bank Pictures The Crown season 3 with Amazon exclusive box artwork
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
