Mindhunter – Picture: Netflix
One of the most in-demand canceled Netflix Originals ever, we often see support for the return of Mindhunter. Since the show was put on an indefinite hiatus, the cast and crew have been incredibly vocal about wanting to return to the series. However, David Fincher, the creator and producer of the series, has reiterated that the likelihood of the show’s return is improbable. Here’s the lowdown on what we know about Mindhunter season 3 according to all the available information in the wild as of 2024.
If you didn’t know, Mindhunter is one of the best shows on Netflix. It follows two FBI agents who opened up a new unit within the Bureau to study some of the most notorious killers in history. For a full recap of the events of season 2, check out our guide here.
Social Media continues to dupe fans
Every year, especially around April, social media successfully dupes fans into believing that Mindhunter has been resurrected.
The most recent posts we’ve seen have been a result of April Fool’s posts, but that hasn’t stopped fans from believing that Mindhunter is returning.
However, even before April Fools Day, we’ve seen numerous accounts, mostly on Facebook, posting fake announcements that Mindhunter has been revived for a third season.
As of 2024 Mindhunter Season 3 is still on Indefinite Hold
Five seasons of the show were initially set out at the show’s inception. Still, due to the nature of the show having a big budget and viewership apparently not hitting the right marks, the show was put on “indefinite hold” with the cast released from their contracts, allowing them to pursue other jobs.
This news came back in January 2020 with Netflix telling Vulture:
“David is focused on directing his first Netflix film Mank and on producing the second season of Love, Death and Robots. He may revisit Mindhunter again 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.”
Mindhunter – Picture: Netflix
In late 2020, Fincher reiterated that the show was on hold, once again to Vulture, saying:
“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was a very 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 — dollars have to equal eyeballs.”
There have been hints that the show could be returning recently, with some sites saying scripts have been worked on and the show is still “in the cards,” but that’s hearsay primarily for now.
In 2023, Fincher spoke to the French outlet Le Journal du Dimanche he was directly asked whether there will be a sequel to Mindhunter, to which he responded (translated to English via Google Translate):
“I’m very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a particularly expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we haven’t attracted a large enough audience to justify such an investment. I don’t blame them, they took risks to launch the series, gave me the means to do as I dreamed Mank [his black and white film on Hollywood in the 1930s] and they allowed me to venture on new paths with The Killer. It’s a great opportunity to be able to work with people capable of audacity. The day when our desires will no longer be the same, we will have to be honest to separate.”
Oddly, Netflix’s French Twitter account found it reasonable to intervene with various outlets snipping up this answer by including the full quote.
Why they found this necessary is unclear; we can think of two reasons. One, the series may come back in some form eventually, or two (and the more likely case), they wanted to include the bits where Fincher praised Netflix instead of just talking about the cold reality of the numbers for the series.
How expensive is Mindhunter?
We’re unsure what each episode’s budget is, but a wonderful breakdown of Mindhunter’s VFX from Artemple Hollywood reveals the surprising amount of VFX used in the series.
A follow-up video for the second season was also made to showcase the amount of VFX in the series.
Given the cost of VFX, it’s no surprise that Mindhunter was a surprisingly expensive series to produce.
What the Cast and Crew Has Said About Season 3 of Mindhunter
The cast has been particularly vocal about the return of the show eventually. Let’s dive into what they’ve had to say:
Jonathan Groff in Mindhunter
Around the time of The Matrix 4 release in late 2021, Jonathan Groff (who played Agent Smith in the sequel) spoke to THR and touched on the future of Mindhunter.
He compared the decision to put the show on hold to that of Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause regarding 1997-1998, whereby it’d give the team some time to rebuild before coming out swinging again.
Groff later added: “The minute he says he wants to do another one, I’ll be there in a second. But I trust his vision and instincts, so I leave it always in his hands, as ever.”
Holt McCallany in Mindhunter – Picture: Netflix
Holt McCallany has been pretty vocal about the show’s future, too, regularly tweeting out any article covering the show’s potential future. McCallany was featured on the KFC Radio podcast in May 2021, saying he’d say “Yes immediately” should the opportunity ever come back up but ultimately said it’s up to David Fincher.
He notably said something similar in an interview with GoldDerby in the summer of 2020, where he said that he’s “optimistic that there can be another season,” adding, “I think it’s not too late for us to come back, so my hope is that we haven’t seen the last of Bill Tench and Holden Ford … I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
Me too.
— Holt McCallany (@HoltMcCallany) January 27, 2021
In January 2024, in an interview with Awards Daily, Holt McCallany claimed that Fincher was thinking of approaching Netflix to see about the return of Mindhunter;
“I’ve heard that David’s thought about it. I’m not saying it’s going to come back, but what I am saying is that if it comes back, I’m coming back with it. You can take that to the bank, but it’ll depend on what David wants to do.””
However, during the interview, he did note how unlikely Mindhunter’s return is given the years that have passed.
Erik Messerschmidt, the cinematographer of Mindhunter, expressed his thoughts on a third season with the Radio Times;
“If my phone rang and David said, ‘We’re going to go back and do the third season of Mindhunter,’ I would be thrilled, of course.
That is a creative chapter in my life that I really feel like I’m quite content that we made it,” he said. “I’m certainly proud of the work. I know the crew and the cast are, and it was certainly special and a life-changing experience for me individually.
But, you know, I don’t know. I’m a fan of it, too, so…”
What would Mindhunter season 3 be about on Netflix?
One of the series directors recently dished to Collider and briefly outlined what season 3 of Mindhunter was initially planned to be about.
Andrew Dominik, who directed season 2 of the show, states that season 3 had higher ambitions than the previous two seasons and would be taking to Hollywood.
“What they were going to do with Season 3 was they were going to go [to] Hollywood. So one of them was going to be hooking up with Jonathan Demme and the other one was going to be hooking up with Michael Mann. And it was all going to be about profiling making it into the sort of zeitgeist, the public consciousness. It would’ve been… That was the season everyone was really waiting for to do, with when they sort of get out of the basement and start.”
What’s David Fincher working on next for Netflix?
Netflix notably signed a four-year exclusive movie and TV deal announced in late 2020, so there’s still some more to come.
Throughout late 2021 and early 2022, Fincher was filming his first major feature film for Netflix in the form of the comic-book adaptation of The Killer, which was released on Netflix in November 2023.
The Killer – Picture: Instagram
Fincher is currently working as a producer on multiple projects, including Netflix’s prequel to the 1974 film Chinatown, with Robert Towne producing the script.
The next film David Fincher is set to direct is Strangers, a crime thriller centered around two men who hatch a murder plot after meeting for the first time on a train, only for one of the men to take their plan as a harmless joke, while the other is deadly serious.
Until then, you can also find some other David Fincher movies on Netflix US, which we’ve listed here, including the Oscar-winning Mank, Love, Death and Robots (which returns for Volume 3 in May 2022), the docu-series Voir, where he served as an executive producer and House of Cards where he also served as an executive producer, and of course, The Killer starring Michael Fassbender.
Do you wish Mindhunter would return for a Season 3 on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below.
Netflix Synopsis: "In the late 1970s two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder and getting uneasily close to all-too-real monsters."
