Mindhunter: Season 3 unlikely according to David Fincher

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Would someone please point me in the direction of a table that I can flip? Nice things are hard to come by these days, and hearing that David Fincher thinks a third season Mindhunter isn't in the cards feels like just another sprinkle on a shit sundae. Actually, let's back up and start from the beginning.

Recently while speaking with Vulture about his new movie MANK, Fincher explained that a return to his serial killer series is unlikely: 

Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show. 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 two. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.

Well, don't that beat all? While many of you were out there watching repeat episodes of How I Met Your Mother, a superb thriller presented by the filmmaker that brought us films like SE7EN, FIGHT CLUB, and THE GAME was left to go underappreciated. Shame! Shame, I say!

From the sound of it, Mindhunter was quite the undertaking. As it turns out, Fincher had completed work on the first season without the aid of a showrunner. Then to make matters even more complicated, Fincher had ended up tossing the scripts he had lined up for season two, thereby forcing himself as well as his team to start from scratch.

We had done the first season of Mindhunter without a showrunner, with me pinch-hitting on a week-by-week basis. 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. I brought in Courtenay Miles, an AD I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-showrunning Mindhunter. 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.”

I'm sorry to have snapped at you earlier. If anything, it's more of a collective failing than the fault of one person, obviously. I'm just upset. Mindhunter is by far and away one of my favorites series of the past few years and the idea of not getting more has me distraught. That said, I'm positive that I'm not alone in this feeling, and we all know how much misery loves company. While something could happen with Mindhunter down the line, I don't know that anyone should hold their breath for another season. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go shoe shopping online so that I can take my frustrations out accordingly. Also, if you got that last bit, give yourselves a pat on the back.