If you’ve been missing Holden Ford and his quest for justice on Mindhunter, prepare for news that’s guaranteed to make your entire year: the thriller series is reportedly set to make its comeback for season three, with Netflix “in discussions” with David Fincher (the executive producer behind the first two seasons).
Fans of the twisted serial killer drama will be pleased, considering the show’s finale left plenty of unanswered questions.
According to Small Screen, “Conversations between Netflix and Fincher are ongoing. They are discussing the possibility of bringing the show back for a third season,” adding that an unidentified source told them, “It’s still very early days, but Fincher sounds more upbeat about the project.”
It’s welcome news considering its cast members, including Jonathan Groff (Ford), Holt McCallany (who plays Bill Tench) and Anna Torv (who plays Wendy Carr), were all released from their contracts in 2020, with Fincher also confirming to Vulture earlier this year that the show would not be returning.
“It’s a 90-hour workweek. 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,” the executive producer told the publication.
Fincher added that the third season “probably” wouldn’t happen, telling the outlet that on top of the long hours cast and crew endure, it’s expensive to produce.
“Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was an expensive show,” he said. “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.”
What Were The First Two Seasons Of Mindhunter About?
Mindhunter follows FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench alongside psychologist Wendy Carr, who operate the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit out of Quantico, Virginia. The trio launches a research project to interview imprisoned serial killers to understand their psychology in the hope of applying the knowledge to ongoing cases. Basically, attempting to uncover why serial killers kill.
Its first season takes place between 1977 and 1980, in the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling. It deep dives into notorious serial killers of the time, including Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton), who assists the team in understanding how the twisted mind of a murderer works, as well as Montie Rissell (Sam Strike) and Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson).
Mindhunters second season occurs during 1980 and 1981 when Ford and Tench are tasked with investigating the Atlanta murders happening at the time, which included 28 deaths, mostly of children. This season based on the real case of serial killer Wayne Williams.
What Will Mindhunter’s Third Season Be About?
Considering the path the first two seasons took, it’s safe to assume Mindhunter’s third instalment would head into the late 1980s and possibly later.
Fincher has previously shared what direction he hoped the series would take, saying: “The hope was to get all the way up to the late ’90s, early 2000s, hopefully, get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader‘s house.”
The reference, for those who need a refresher, is a callback to season one when Fincher opened each episode with a man named Dennis Rader (played by Sonny Valicenti).
For now, that’s all we know—but we’re remaining hopeful Ford, Tench and Carr will be back solving cases in no time.
