David Fincher has been hounded with questions about Mindhunter ever since the show seemingly went on hiatus in 2019. The psychological thriller, which saw Fincher tackling serial killers once again, received widespread acclaim over the course of its two seasons on Netflix. Although Season 2 teased future directions, Season 3 was never produced, much to fans’ dismay. Fincher has blamed escalating budgets as one of the reasons why Netflix didn’t continue the show, but more recently, he confirmed that the project was officially dead. However, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has now said that the budget wasn’t actually the biggest reason why Mindhunter didn’t return. He declared that he would have loved for the show to continue with a third season.

“I’m 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,” Fincher said in a 2023 interview with Forbes. “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.” In a separate interview with Vulture, Fincher highlighted the budgets once again and confirmed that Mindhunter was dead. He said, “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 2. And on some level, you have to be realistic about dollars have to equal eyeballs.”

Here’s What Ted Sarandos Said About ‘Mindhunter’

At an event hosted by The Indian Express in New Delhi this week, Sarandos was asked if there’s a film that didn’t get a sequel, but should have. He replied by bringing up Mindhunter. “It’s not a part two, it’s a part three that I wish we got to make,” he said.

“Mindhunter, David Fincher’s series on Netflix. We always anticipated there would be a third season, and he got very busy making a film. And David is an unbelievably meticulous creator, so he couldn’t do two things at the same time, and he certainly didn’t want to short-change either one. So it just got pushed off and pushed off. I would have loved to have seen a third season of Mindhunter.”

Sarandos didn’t bring up budgetary concerns, but suggested that Fincher‘s busy schedule got in the way of the show, which was headlined by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany. Nevertheless, Fincher has exclusively worked with Netflix for over a decade and is now gearing up for the release of the Brad Pitt-led The Adventures of Cliff Booth, which the streamer is going to debut theatrically later this year.

via Collider