Mindhunteris probably finished at Netflix, according to David Fincher. Season 3 of the popular series has been on hold indefinitely since January of this year, when it was revealed that Fincher was focusing onMankand that the streaming service had released the cast and crew from their contracts. At the time, Netflix said, “He [Fincher] may revisitMindhunteragain in the future, 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.”
In a new interview,David Fincher, who is now preparing to releaseMank, says thatManhunteris probably done for good. The series premiered in 2017 to rave reviews from critics and a ton of praise on social media, which helped word of mouth advertising for Netflix. However, it doesn’t seem like it was enough. Fincher had this to say.
“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 2. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.”
David Fincher went on to discuss some of the logistical problems thatManhunterexperienced during its short run. “We had done the first season ofMindhunterwithout a showrunner, with me pinch-hitting on a week-by-week basis,” he revealed. “I brought in Courtenay Miles, an AD I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-showrunningMindhunter[for Season 2].” With that being said, it ended up beingtoo much work for everybodyinvolved. “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 3.'”
This will certainly come as bad news to fans ofMindhunter, though it was to be expected. WhenNetflixlet the cast and crew go, there weren’t too many people thinking season 3 was going to become a reality. When asked about the show possibly coming back, a Netflix spokesperson said, “Maybe in five years.” It seems that a lot will have to happen to get season 3 back together, but it also looks like Netflix isn’t entirely sure that David Fincher is done withMindhunterjust yet.
The news comes after Netflix started to clean house on some of its most popular original programming. It’s quite possible that the streaming platform would have canceled the show at some point this year, even if David Fincher wasn’t working onMank. With that being said, there is still a sliver of hope thatMindhunterwill return for a possible third, and possibly final, season. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see. The interview with David Fincher was originally conducted byVulture.
