There's an Actual, Legitimate Chance That Netflix's Mindhunter Will Come Back

There haven't been any new episodes of David Fincher's Mindhunter since Season 2 dropped in 2019, but the show — about the FBI's early attempts to study serial killers — was never actually canceled. Instead, it was just placed on hold, with Netflix apparently reserving the right to bring it back at some point. There's likely a legal distinction there that matters to Netflix, but for fans, the show has just been dead, and after six years everybody had seemingly moved on. But there's hope for the Mindhunter story to continue, according to star Holt McCallany. 

"I had a meeting with David Fincher in his office a few months ago, and he said to me that there is a chance that it may come back as three two-hour movies, but I think it's just a chance," McCallany told CBR. "I know there are writers that are working, but you know, David has to be happy with scripts." 

But McCallany doesn't want to get your or his own hopes up too much. "He gave me a little bit of hope when I had that meeting with him, but the sun, the moon, and the stars would all have to align," McCallany said. But how can we not get excited? Just the fact that scripts have even been commissioned is a very good sign for the fans who've been holding their breath all these years.

More on Netflix:

• The best TV shows on Netflix
• The best movies on Netflix
• Everything new on Netflix

At the same time, though, it could be that it's the "David has to be happy with the scripts" part holding things up. Fincher, the painstaking director of a number of already-classic films like Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac and The Social Network, famously threw out the initial batch of scripts for Season 2 of Mindhunter before essentially taking over as the de facto showrunner. The series took a break after Season 2 because Fincher needed it. 

Starring Jonathan Groff, Ana Torv, and McCallany, Mindhunter told the story of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, which studied the behavior and psychology of murderers, and serial killers in particular. Season 1 had a more general premise, with several killers being investigated as the trio works out their methodology. Season 2 was more focused, honing in on the Atlanta Child Murders of the late 1970s and early '80s.

Given how difficult the production process was on Season 2, it's no wonder that Fincher would prefer to continue the story in a format (the movies) that's a bit more contained and that he's more comfortable with. And it's also not particularly surprising that Fincher would casually chat with McCallany about Mindhunter's future, since the two of them go way back — McCallany had a supporting role in Fincher's first movie, Alien 3, and also played a key member of Project Mayhem in Fight Club. 

If we do get a series of Mindhunter films to wrap up the story, it could be that we'll see some large time skips between them. Fincher told Variety back in 2020 that the hope was for the series to eventually get all the way up to the BTK Killer's arrest in 2005. Whether Fincher still wants to take it there or not is anybody's guess at this point, but the BTK Killer was one of the murderers that the BSU investigated in Season 1.

The first two seasons of Mindhunter are streaming on Netflix.