The fateful day for Mindhunter fans has arrived. News of a third season has finally been announced. Unfortunately, it’s not good.
After the show’s season two finale in 2019, it was revealed that cast members Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff, and Anna Torv were released from their contracts as season three entered into an indefinite hold by Netflix, per TV Line. At the time, it was believed executive producer David Fincher’s busy schedule was to blame. Now we know the culprit was actually Netflix.
In speaking with the French magazine Le Journal du Dimanche, Fincher said he’s “very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough of an audience to justify such an investment.”
He also said, “I don’t blame them, they took risks to get the show off the ground, gave me the means to do Mank the way I wanted to do it and they allowed me to venture down new paths with The Killer. It’s a blessing to be able to work with people who are capable of boldness. The day our desires are not the same, we have to be honest about parting ways.”
Just like that, any and all hope for a third season went out the window. As a long-time collaborator of Netflix, it’s clear Fincher is not in the market of tarnishing the platform’s name, but the same can’t be said of the fans.
Rallying together in their ire, the fandom turned to Twitter to express their frustration at being strung along for four years and at Netflix for not recognizing quality if it spat in its face.
Notorious for prematurely canceling shows, (ahem, Warrior Nun) it’s hard to see Netflix’s side of things, especially when Mindhunter had a Rotten Tomatoes freshness score of 96 percent for season one and an astounding 99 percent for season two. It feels almost patronizing to say the audience wasn’t there to support the cost.
Above and beyond money, Twitter user @pjmaciak delivered a seething critique of just how far Netflix has veered from its moral baseline. To go from a show that investigates the human psyche and societal fixation with serial killers to then promoting them with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is about as twisted as it can get.
As masterpieces go, Mindhunter was that and more to some fans. The heartbreak is real.
If money is all it takes, then perhaps a GoFundMe account is the next step. Or a winning lottery ticket.
Years of waiting, hoping, and expecting good news have all come to this. Is it any wonder the fandom is angry?
The fans are not even past the point of bribery if it comes to that. Noah Centineo for Mindhunter. Your choice, Netflix.
Whether the Mindhunter fandom reaches the same level of furor as the Warrior Nun fandom remains to be seen. The former fantasy series recently amassed a staggering 10 million tweets in an effort to snag Netflix’s attention.
Be it a GoFundMe, a petition, or millions of tweets, it’s safe to say this won’t be the last Netflix hears of Mindhunter.