After years of speculation from fans, David Fincher has said, again, that his Netflix series Mindhunter is definitely not getting a third season.
In 2020, Netflix announced that the show wasn't canceled, but on an indefinite hold as Fincher was busy with other projets. However, Fincher clarified in a recent interview with French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche that Season 3 won't be happening, and Mindhunter's high cost was to blame.
“I’m very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough of an audience to justify such an investment [for Season 3],” he said. “I don’t blame them, they took risks to get the show off the ground, gave me the means to do Mank the way I wanted to do it, and they allowed me to venture down new paths with The Killer. It’s a blessing to be able to work with people who are capable of boldness. The day our desires are not the same, we have to be honest about parting ways.”
The crime thriller series, which starred Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany and Anna Torv as FBI agents who launch a project to interview serial killers to understand their psychology, ran for two seasons on the streamer.
Fincher has explained in the past that he was too focused on other projects or didn’t think he could create more material for Mindhunter. He did, however, say in the past that cost also played a significant part in Netflix’s decision to end the series.
“We had all hands on deck to finish [Season 2] and we didn’t have a ton of scripts and a ton of outlines and a bible standing by for season three,” he told Variety in 2020. “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.'”
In addition to Mindhunter, Fincher has worked with the streaming service as an executive producer and director for House of Cards and directed the black-and-white biographical drama Mank. The Killer, Fincher’s latest feature, is set to premiere Nov. 10 on Netflix.
