‘Mindhunter’ Is Officially Dead; Long Live ‘Mindhunter’

David Fincher is officially laying Mindhunter to rest. In an interview with French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche, ahead of receiving an honorary César award, the director reflected on his Netflix series about FBI agents profiling serial killers. The show debuted in 2017, and lasted for two perfect seasons. For years, Fincher has neither confirmed nor denied that a third might happen—but now, it seems he has finally closed the door on Mindhunter once and for all. 

“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 three],” Fincher said. He doesn’t blame the streamer for that though. “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 [his next feature]. It’s a blessing to be able to work with people who are capable of boldness.”

Fincher’s remarks won’t come as a surprise to fans of Mindhunter, who have been hoping for a potential third season since 2019. There were warning signs even then that the second season might be the last, including an early 2020 announcement that the show had been put on “indefinite hold” and that lead actors Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv had been released from their contracts. In an interview with Vulture later that year, Fincher was asked if the show was done. “I think probably,” he replied. Why? In part because the critically acclaimed series was never a ratings smash for Netflix, and because the production itself was grueling and time-consuming.

“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,’” Fincher explained. (He instead focused his attention on making Mank, a black-and-white biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, based on a screenplay by his late father, Jack Fincher.) “We lived there [in Pittsburgh, where the show was filmed] for almost three years. Not year in, year out, but we spent probably six or seven months a year over three years. We had an apartment there, and a car. Mindhunter was a lot for me.”

At the time, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed a third season of the show was not in the works, but said that the streamer wasn’t saying never. “Maybe in five years,” the rep told Vulture. Though we’re still in the five-year window (the tiniest crumb of hope), it seems Fincher is truly done with the series. 

It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Mindhunter, a probing, paranoid look at the lives of the FBI agents who profiled serial killers in the 1970s, was an instant true-crime classic, created by one of the genre’s most obsessive auteurs. Arriving a few years before the true-crime boom began dominating prestige television, Mindhunter took a historical approach to the form. Rather than focusing on a single story, or glamorizing serial killers at large, the show sought to analyze them in clinical terms. It followed green FBI agent Holden Ford (Groff), his seasoned partner, Bill Tench (McCallany), and psychologist Wendy Carr (Torv) as they sought to understand and pathologize serial killers, in the hopes of solving or preventing future crimes. 

The first season follows Holden’s journey as he descends into a kind of twisted obsession with the men he profiles, almost becoming enamored by the mysteries at the heart of their evil acts. His behavior reflects that of contemporary true-crime junkies who are bewitched by serial killers, gorging on stories about their depraved acts and losing sight of the victims altogether. But even though the show indulges Holden’s growing obsession, it ends by throwing cold water over the whole thing, bringing him to a chilling, one-on-one meeting with murderer Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton). It’s then that Holden finds himself in the shoes of Kemper’s past victims, in a vivid, disturbing moment of empathy. 

The show’s second season doubles down on this approach, focusing on the Atlanta Child Murders case. Between 1979 and 1981, nearly 30 victims—24 of whom were under the age of 17—were killed in a serial spree. Wayne Williams was convicted of killing two adults and ultimately given two life sentences. The show’s treatment of the case not only shed light on a lesser-known true-crime story, focusing on the Black victims and families who were terrorized by the killing spree, but also focused on the failings of the justice system. 

In retrospect, the second season is the antithesis of a true-crime adaptation like Dahmer, Ryan Murphy’s controversial series about Jeffrey Dahmer. That series, also released by Netflix, drew criticism from the families of Dahmer’s victims, who felt the show focused too much on the titular killer and exploited their suffering.  It’s a critique that can be lobbed at many true-crime series; the fact of the genre’s mere existence is murky and complicated, powered by an obsession with some of the worst people society has to offer. Fincher, however, knew how to navigate those waters. Season three purportedly would have been all about the boom of Hollywood adaptations of true-crime stories—a meta, perfectly timed narrative. If only Fincher wanted to make it.