Netflix says Fincher was too busy for Mindhunter season 3, and Fincher tells it differently

If you've been waiting around for Mindhunter season 3, you're not alone — and the update we've just had is more muddled than enlightening. After years of dead silence, Netflix and David Fincher are now pointing fingers at each other over why the third season hasn't happened. Classic telly standoff stuff.

Asked during a recent Netflix panel which show sequel he wishes had got the green light, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said: "It’s not a part two, it’s a part three that I wish we would’ve got to. Mindhunter, David Fincher’s series on Netflix that... 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 just do two things at the same time, and he certainly didn’t want to shortchange either one. So it got pushed off and pushed off and, I would’ve loved to have seen a third season of Mindhunter."

That's the official company line: Fincher got buried in film work and couldn't split his attention. Fair enough, directors often juggle projects, but with Fincher's reputation for perfectionism, that tracks. But hang on – that doesn't match what we've heard before.

Who's Actually To Blame?

Last year, Fincher himself told Le Journal du Dimanche quite a different story: the real reason was money — or, more accurately, Netflix not wanting to spend it. He said plain and simple that Mindhunter had become "too expensive" and wasn't bringing in enough of a viewer boost for Netflix to justify more episodes.

So now we've got two contradictory explanations — Fincher blaming the streamer for shutting the door due to costs, Netflix saying it was Fincher's own schedule that doomed season 3. Good luck getting a straight answer from either side at this rate.

Mindhunter first arrived in 2017 and only ran for two seasons before limbo set in.

The show itself covers the origins of the FBI's Behaviour Science Unit back in the 1970s and dives into how criminal profiling got its start. The true crime angle, the stylised look, and Fincher's glossy touch earned it all sorts of praise — but apparently, not quite enough of a mainstream audience to make Netflix happy.

• 2017: Mindhunter debuts on Netflix, based on the 1995 non-fiction book by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
• Two seasons released, following the formation of the FBI's criminal profiling unit
• Fincher says Netflix pulled the plug due to budget and ratings
• Netflix now says it was Fincher's schedule that killed season 3

For now, Mindhunter's third season is sat firmly in the realm of "maybe, one day." Don't hold your breath.