Mindhunter, the psychological thriller, that captured a strong fanbase and garnered critical acclaim, may never come back for the highly anticipated Season 3.
Netflix’s official position is that the series is on indefinite hold but it sounds like an unofficial cancellation. As previously reported, Mindhunter cast members including Jonathan Groff (Holden Ford), Anna Torv ( Wendy Carr), and Holt McMcallany (Bill Tench) along with the rest of the cast and crew have been released from their contract.
Mindhunter director and executive producer David Fincher has finally revealed why the popular series may never return. However, he is not willing to close the chapter on the series either but the series appears to be all but done.
Will another network pick up the series? Will Mindhunter possibly return in the distant future? Here is everything we know.
Mindhunter Season 3? Maybe in five years
Fincher stopped short of explicitly saying the series won’t return but revealed that Netflix’s budgeting limits effectively killed the popular crime drama. In an interview with Vulture, Fincher explained the following:
“I think probably. 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.”
Mank is an upcoming Netflix movie which is about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his conflicts with director Orson Welles over screenplay credit for Citizen Kane. The script was written by his father, Jack Fincher.
It appears that Mindhunter has met the same fate as other popular series that got axed: big-budget, low viewership.
GLOW, Altered Carbon, One Day at a Time, Sense8, The OA, and The Dark Crystal are among Netflix’s most popular series to get canceled. Although they are not all due to budgeting issues, it tends to be a reoccurring theme in Netflix cancellations.
However, Netflix is willing to leave the door open. A spokesperson told Vulture that the third season could happen, “maybe in five years.” Therefore, fans should not keep their hopes up.
Could Amazon Prime save Mindhunter?
Amazon Prime Video is starting to make some headway in its streaming war with Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu. One of its strategies to pick up some of the market shares from competitors is to revive the canceled series. However, since Mindhunter is a Netflix original, it is unlikely that the company will give up the rights to a competitor.