It appears that we won’t be seeing many more interviews with serial killers. Mindhunter, the Netflix series that looked into the early days of the FBI’s criminal profiling efforts, is on an indefinite hold according to the streamer. The series actors have all been released of their contracts and showrunner/director David Fincher is busy with other projects. Plus, outside of the official statement, word is that Fincher was tiring of the series after a stressful second season that saw him doing a lot of heavy lifting to get the show out the door.
Netflix’s official statement is, “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.”
However, both Deadline and The Playlist (via Collider) are citing other factors for why the show isn’t continuing. Playlist reports that Fincher was “spiritually fatigued” after completing the second season. They note that he had challenges with some of the series directors, and though he’s only credited with directing two episodes of the second season, he had a hand in many more. Fincher reportedly also wants to get back into feature films, something that another extended location shoot for Mindhunter wouldn’t let him do. Maybe he wants to try to get World War Z 2 back up and running after that film fell through because of budget issues.
The show’s lead actors, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv, were said to have known about the impending non-cancellation. The cast reportedly loves working with Fincher and would be happy to return, but the show is a no-go unless Fincher wants it to happen, which doesn’t look like it’s going to happen for a very long time, if at all.