Will Netflix Make a Third Season of “Mindhunter”? ‘Cos David Fincher Wants Five

Cue a celebratory rendition of that theme song no one can quite hum along to.

If you’ve just finished the second season of Netflix’s serial killer thriller Mindhunter, you’ve likely got more questions than answers. (Though, thankfully, they finally addressed its longest lingering mystery: Do they know how silly it is that the main character is called Holden Ford?)

Spoilers ahead for the second season of Mindhunter.

Though S2 wrapped up the Atlanta Child Murders plotline with the arrest of Wayne B. Williams, it was a melancholy finale for Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Tench (Holt McCallany). As history tells us, there’s been no real resolution to many of the linked murders of this period, with Williams only on the hook for a small number of them (even though he remains the prime suspect).

Ford, in particular, is crestfallen to have let down the kids’ mothers, even though his practice of profiling is finally getting national attention, and the respect of his very own FBI. Tench, meanwhile, came home to an empty house, having left his wife Nance (Stacey Roca) to deal with their maybe-murderer-in-the-making son Brian (Zachary Scott Ross) all on her own. Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), meanwhile, is single and ready to mingle (and, more importantly, determined to get what she wants). And, as established by the final scene of the season, the ADT Serviceman (Sonny Valicenti) is indeed the BTK Killer, having graduated from depraved fantasy to actual slayings.

So, clearly, there’s more story to tell. Unfortunately, Netflix is yet to official renew Mindhunter for a third season.

Since they rarely announce how many people are actually watching their shows, it’s never quite clear why they renew the shows that they do. That’s why we're so confused when beloved programs like Tuca & Bertie get canned after one season, and actual works of the devil like Fuller House go on for five.

But if Mindhunter’s executive producer David Fincher gets his way, there will be at least three more seasons of Mindhunter in which he can explore the darkest minds in history.

That’s according to McCallany, who told The Hollywood Reporter of Fincher’s plans (based on their first meeting on the project): "He said, 'Listen, are you ready to do this for five seasons? Because even if I f*** it up, it's gonna go five seasons, and I don't intend to f*** it up.'"

"So I'd like to think that we will continue, for as long as David is intrigued by telling this particular story," McCallany added.

Five seasons makes a lot of sense, when you consider the fact (and potential spoilers for real life here) the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader, apparently stopped murdering people in 1991, and wasn’t actually arrested until 2005. If each season jumps forward a few years, the story might wrap-up in the '90s, with a short epilogue in the early 2000s (which is actually very similar to the structure of Fincher’s brilliant movie Zodiac). That means Ford and Tench will get to interview plenty more notorious weirdos throughout the 1980s, and track Brian’s development too.

That is, if Netflix lets Fincher tell his story in full. I mean, if they can give five seasons to that other examination of the darkness in the human soul, Fuller House, they can do the same for Mindhunter.

Header Image: Netflix