Unfortunately for fans of Netflix original series Mindhunter, the chances we’ll be getting a third season are slim to none. You can still hold out hope if that's what you need to do, but when a director says he "doesn't have it in [him]," it's a bad sign.
David Fincher, Mindhunter’s executive producer slash director slash showrunner, has basically confirmed that he's given up on moving further with the popular crime drama. “We lived there for almost three years,” he said during an interview with Vulture. “Not year in and year out, but … probably six or seven months a year … Mindhunter was a lot for me.”
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Fincher said that when he started writing the third season while filming the second, he "didn't like any of it" and scrapped it to start over. Season 2 didn't end on a huge cliffhanger like the first, but it still made a strong case for a third season. However, working on the first two seasons drained Fincher. “It’s a 90-hour workweek," he said. "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.’” Instead, he started working on a new movie with Netflix, Mank, a black and white movie about an infamous Old Hollywood screenwriter.
In January, Deadline reported that Netflix had not renewed the contracts of the Mindhunter cast, so Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv were allowed to pursue other opportunities. And then in July, it was announced that other members of the team, including Fincher, were going after other projects as well. It already didn't look good for Mindhunter before, but this is basically feels like the nail in the coffin (besides an official Netflix announcement).
“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was a very expensive show,” Fincher continued. “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 — dollars have to equal eyeballs.” And if that wasn't enough, a spokesperson for Netflix added that “maybe in five years,” another season could happen.
At this point, though, fans would likely rather not be strung along for much longer.